Martial Henri Valin

After nine years cavalry service in the chasseurs d'Afrique, dragoons, spahis, and hussars, he eventually volunteered for the French Army's aviation branch, the aéronautique militaire, in 1926.

He was soon selected for officer training and returned to active service in 1918 as an aspirant in the 3rd Chasseurs d'Afrique.

In 1926 Martial Valin volunteered as an aviator, serving as an observer in 1927 and then a pilot from 1928, specialised in night flying and bombing.

In 1938 he was promoted to commandant and served with the 33rd Air Squadron (at this time a French "squadron" was equivalent to an RAF "wing") Appointed a military attache in Rio de Janeiro in 1940, he arrived in England in 1941 to assist the Free French.

[2] In August 1941, Valin was appointed to a political role on the exiled Comité national français as the "air forces commissary".