Historical service of defense

The historical Service of defense (SHD) is the center of files of the ministry for Defense and the French armed forces. It was created by of the January 17th 2005. This service with national competence is attached to the direction of the memory, of the inheritance and the files, one of the directions of the General secretary for the administration (SGA) of the ministry for Defense.

It ensures, according to the same terms of the decree the component:

the scientific and technical control of the current files;
collection, conservation and the management of the intermediate files which concern its competence and the scientific and technical control of the other intermediate files, according to provisions fixed by decree;
collection, conservation and the management of the final files;
collection, conservation and the management of the other documents which are allotted or given to the ministry for defense, subject to payment or free;
the communication of the files of defense and their development;
the examination of the applications of communication, by way of derogation, of the files of defense (...);
the management of the patrimonial libraries which concern its competence and the scientific and technical control of the other patrimonial libraries of defense, according to provisions fixed by decree;
the management of the military symbolic system.

This service also contributes to work relating to the history of defense.

The SHD includes/understands the Historical center of the files of Vincennes and the Center of the files of the armament and the personnel of Châtellerault. On the whole, it preserves nearly 500 kilometers linear of files, including 100 km with Vincennes and 70 km at Châtellerault, which in fact, in the face, second service of files of France.

The Historical center of the files is divided into seven departments, of which the departments Ground, Air, Marine and Gendarmerie, resulting from the old respective historical services of the various armies. For several years, projects aiming at joining together these services have made day but none could lead before 2005. These failures had in particular with the differences in culture between the SHAT and the SHAA, the second being much more opened with the civilian than the first from the proportion of civilians employed.

The SHD also has one of the most prestigious Bibliothèque S of France. Distributed between the departments Ground and Navy, it counts more than one million volumes, 16th at the 20th century. Specialized in the military history, it preserves, in addition to rare editions and bindings of luxury, many manuscripts - the such book of geography of Louis XVI child - or of the original collections of charts and old plans.

The SHD freely delivers its opinion on the exemptions which are required of him. In the event of refusal, the applicant cannot make call near the Commission of access to the administrative documents (CADA), board of appeals formed at the time it Jospin government to guarantee an equitable access to the files and to re-examine the case of the requests which would have encountered a refusal. Indeed, the SHD does not recognize the competence of the CADA. With the difference of the documents produced by civil services, the consultation of the documents produced by the soldiers thus remains subjected to the discrétionnaire will of those which, in good or evil, estimate the successors and the guarantors of them.

Chiefs of the historical service of Defense

Vice-admiral of squadron Louis Dubessey de Contenson (since 2005)

Department Ground

The department Ground is the heir to the historical service of the Army (SHAT). It is resulting from the Dépôt of the War, of which historical attributions were entrusted in 1887 to a historical Service of the army, renamed historical Service of the Army at the time of the creation of the air force.

The SHAT was installed with the Château of Vincennes. It preserved the whole of the files of the French Army. During the creation of the historical Service of defense , on January 17th 2005, the SHAT becomes about it the department “Ground”.

Chiefs of the service then department

Brigadier general Charles of Thimble-Brissac
General Jean Delmas
General Andre Bach
General Jean-Jacques Sénant
General Michel Berlaud
Colonel Frederic Guelton (since 2005)

Department Air

The Air department is the heir to the historical service of air force (SHAA).

The origin of the SHAA goes back to December 1934 when the “service of the historical and geographical studies of the Air is created”, which succeeds the aeronautical section existing since 1930 within the historical Service of the Army. Three missions are then assigned to him: to collect and classify the files of military aeronautics and the air force, to write the history of the military aviation, to establish air charts. With this intention, the service receives the files of the units of the First World War and the old direction of the aeronautics of the ministry for the War. Marking its identity, it settles as of 1935 in the buildings of the ministry for the Air, Victor boulevard, in Paris.

After an eclipse between 1936 and 1939, the service is reconstituted under the name of historical Service of air force (SHAA) and sees its reinforced missions archivistic and historical, with the detriment of its geographical mission which disappears. Its activity does not cease during the Second world war, in spite of extremely detrimental peregrinations in addition for its funds of files. Recreated in 1945, the SHAA settles with the Military academy where it is attached to the Center of air higher education (CEASED) starting from April 1st 1946, then with Versailles in 1948, and finally in 1968 with the castle of Vincennes, with the historical Service of the Army, joined in 1974 by that of the Navy.

Part of these files was destroyed vis-a-vis in advance of the German troops in 1940. Another, captured intact, was transferred in Germany for study. Then, it is with the turn of the Russians to gather these files, and to dispatch them in Moscow like spoils of war. Following an agreement with the Russian authorities, these files are in the course of rehabilitation within the service.

Chiefs of the service then department

General Tassin of Holy-Péreuse
General Hayez: -1974
General Charles Christienne: 1974-1985
General Lucien Robineau: 1985-1995
General Hugues Sylvestre de Sacy: 1995 -
General Roland Bourdonnec: ??? - 2005 Preserving
as a chief of the inheritance Agnes Chablat-Beylot: since 2005

Department Marine

The Marine department is the heir to the historical service of navy (SHM) created in 1919. It has antennas with Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Toulon.

It is with the castle of Vincennes since 1974.

Department National police

The department National police is the heir to the historical service of National police (SHGN), created in 1996 at the height of Houses-Alfort. Attached to the historical Service of Defense during the creation of this one in January 2005, it is present at the castle of Vincennes since the end 2006, but also includes/understands two deposits of files decentralized, in Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne) and the White (Indre). The documents of these sites are communicated in the single room of reading of the department, located at Vincennes.

Chiefs of the service then department

General Jean-Claude Marion (1996-1998)
General Georges Philippot (1998-2003)
General Yves-Alain Quentel (2003 - 2005)
Colonel Dominique Renault (since 2005)

Department interarmées, ministerial and interdepartmental

Department of the technological innovation and the entries by extraordinary way

Department of public and valorization

Center files of the armament and the personnel

Sources

Collective, Guide of the files of the library (2nd edition), SHAA, 2001
Agnes Chablat-Beylot, files of the historical service of the air force , 1994

External bonds

Official site of the historical Service of Defense

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