Marcel Schaecht, who fought for France during World War II before going on to race the inaugural Dakar Rally in 1979, passed away last Monday at the age of 99. His death was just three days before his 100th birthday.
Schaecht entered the newly organised Paris–Dakar Rally in a Toyota BJ alongside his daughter Dominique Fondrillon as a support vehicle for son Alain Schaecht‘s Honda 250 XLS bike. The adventure, running from Paris to Dakar across ten thousand kilometres, was another chapter in an eventful life for the family patriarch.
He was born in 1923 to a Belgian soldier while both of his parents worked at the United States Army camp in Gièvres, and he was named after his uncle who died on the day that the armistice to end World War I was signed. After France fell to Germany in 1940, he was working in Montoire where the infamous October handshake between Adolf Hitler and Philippe Pétain took place to begin Vichy France’s role as a Nazi collaborationist. Looking to flee the occupied country, Schaecht joined a recruiter’s office in Blois that was looking for men to build up the Vichy Armistice Army, from which he acquired forged paperwork that he used to cross the demarcation line into Vierzon and the “Free Zone” by early November.
After hiding as a civilian for months, he joined the 21st Colonial Infantry Regiment (now known as the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment). Following the Allied invasion of North Africa and the regiment’s dissolution, Schaecht witnessed the scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon to prevent its seizure by German forces, which he called his “second major event after Montoire.”
He eventually returned to Blois and became part of the French Resistance. When the Western Allies launched the Normandy landings in 1944, he was pursued by the Milice in Montoire before linking up with the Resistance, later saving an American soldier from drowning in the Loir. Schaecht was recruited into Jean de Lattre de Tassigny’s First Army and was promoted to sergeant by the end of the war.
Schaecht remained in service following the war and was later deployed to Indochina and Africa. While in Algeria, he was involved in the failed Algiers putsch of 1961, though he stressed he was an unwitting participant.
After retiring from the military, he opened a driving school before signing up for the 1979 Paris–Dakar. Dominique had won her class at the Rally Côte D’Ivoire–Côte D’Azur 1977, a rally raid from Abidjan to Nice that inspired Thierry Sabine to create the Dakar.
The rally began on an inauspicious note when Alain forgot his bib number at home, though Dominique’s father-in-law recovered the item for the team to proceed. The Toyota finished twenty-second in the Prologue stage in Montlhéry, stymied by broken windshield wipers in heavy rain.
Once in Algeria, the team befriended pharmacists Bernard and Jacqueline Lemonnier, who also raced a Toyota, and they elected to run the rally together. This strategy proved crucial as the Lemonniers’ car boasted resources like a refrigerator and spare fuel for Alain’s bike.
Continuing towards the border with Niger, the group found themselves getting slowed down having to rescue bikers who ran out of fuel and supplies. One of the competitors Schaecht encountered was future three-time Dakar champion René Metge, who was hitchhiking in the desert after an argument with his navigator. In Agadez, they were called by locals to rider Patrice Dodin who had crashed prior to the stage; Schaecht summoned Sabine for help, though Dodin later died from his injuries.
Heading from Tahoua to Talcho, they crashed into a sand trap while distracted by a truck with problems. The vehicle suffered serious damage, though the Lemonniers once again proved to be their saviours upon their arrival. Unfortunately for Schaecht, the Toyota rolled a day later and he hit his mouth against the steering wheel. He and his daughter still managed to complete the stage before reuniting with Alain the following morning.
The rally continued into Mali, where Schaecht recalled being invited by Malian Ligue 1 football star Bako Touré for a whiskey. The rest of the race was relatively clean for the father/daughter duo and they reached the finish fifty-fifth overal. Alain was sixth among bikes, set back by a seven-hour time penalty due to a broken wheel; he would race the Dakar two more times in 1981 and 1982.
His service took place last Thursday at the church in La Chaussée-Saint-Victor.
