French Ministry of Defence; Service historique de la Défense

Overview

The Service historique de la Défense (SHD) is the sole archival service of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and the largest archive service in France by volume. Attached to the Directorate of Memory, Culture and Archives (DMCA) within the Secrétariat général pour l'Administration (SGA), the SHD preserves nearly 450 linear kilometers of military archives spanning from the 17th century to the present day, along with approximately one million library volumes and nearly 18 million photographs.

History and Founding

The SHD was created on 1 January 2005 by Decree No. 2005-36 of 17 January 2005, consolidating the former historical services of the Army (SHAT), Navy (SHM), Air Force (SHAA), and the Gendarmerie nationale, together with the armaments and civilian personnel archives centre at Châtellerault. The merger unified institutions that had operated separately for decades. In 2012, the Bureau Central des Archives Administratives Militaires (BCAAM) in Pau was also attached to the SHD.

Collections and Holdings

The SHD's headquarters at the Château de Vincennes holds over 120 linear kilometers of documents from the 17th century onward, including archives of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, inter-service organizations, the Army, the Air Force, the Gendarmerie nationale, and the Navy General Staff. Holdings include military personnel files, resistance network records from World War II, registers of those who died for France in World War I, concentration camp registers, and extensive cartographic and iconographic collections. The SHD also publishes the Revue historique des Armées, a quarterly military history journal.

Access and Usage

The Louis XIV reading room at Vincennes is open Monday 1 pm–5 pm, Tuesday through Thursday 9 am–5 pm, Friday 9 am–4 pm, and Saturday 9:30 am–3 pm. All documents must be reserved in advance through the SHD's online personal space. A reader's card is required to consult original documents. The SHD operates nine sites across France: Vincennes, Caen, Châtellerault, Pau, Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, and Toulon. Remote requests for document guidance or reproduction may take six to twelve weeks to process.