Lt. Benitz was killed while on duty on 5th August 1918. He was taking part in a patrol on the East Coast. His plane still had small anti-zeppelin bombs on board when there was a problem with the plane’s fuel, and his engine stopped.
He was flying at low altitude and attempted an emergency landing in a field at Atwick, near Hornsea, his plane crashed, killing Lt. Benitz. His observer was seriously injured.
His headstone says he was: “Of La California Argentine Republic.” This was his family’s ranch or estancia of 13,700 acres.
Lt. Benitz was born in May 1893 and brought up on the estancia in Santa Fe province. He gained his pilot’s wings at San Fernando near Buenos Aires.
Between 1907 and 1910, he attended Malvern College in Worcestershire. He was a popular student, “with an infectious keenness to be always doing their utmost.” As The Malvernian College magazine wrote after his death. He is remembered on their War Memorial.
He then attended the University of Illinois, and when the University built a Memorial Stadium, Lt. Benitz was named on the Memorial Plaque and one of the 200 columns on the façade.
In 1917, he volunteered for the war effort and came to the UK. In June 1917, he joined the Royal Flying Corps at Farnborough and began his training as a cadet.
In August the same year, he transferred to the School of Military Aeronautics, and the following month was commissioned as 2nd Lt. He was then commissioned as Lt. in December 1917 and posted to 33 Squadron with its Bristol F2.B fighters.
Lt Benitz’s headstone was restored by the Friends and the Trent Valley Academy in 2012.
