Сен-Сир
Having attended the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, he became a lieutenant in 1911 and was attached to a cavalry regiment when the First World War broke out in August 1914. He was an officer of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the 1st Moroccan Infantry Division in 1915, and gained his pilot's licence in 1916. In the course of the war he won the Croix de Guerre and seven citations.