Monday, 1 May 2024

5:00-6:40 pm Paris time

Zoom lecture

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the landings at Normandy, one of the most significant events of the last century. Important anniversary commemorations are being prepared particularly in Normandy in June. Major Joshua Watson, an Australian Army officer, formerly officer of the American Army and veteran of the Afghanistan campaigns, will present to us the background and context of D-Day. He will be relating the fascinating events and stories of the landings and airborne operations, and the legacy of 6 June 1944. Focus areas will include the preparations and secrecy surrounding the invasion, the airborne and glider operations during the night of 5/6 June, and the fighting for Omaha Beach on the morning of 6 June.

Major Joshua Watson is an officer in the Australian Army. Born and raised in the United States, he graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and served for ten years in the US Army, including two combat deployments to Afghanistan. He and his family immigrated to Australia in 2014 and he now serves in the Australian Army as a combat engineer and explosive ordnance disposal technician. He was most recently the commander of the Army’s only bomb disposal squadron outside of Brisbane, Queensland. A veteran with twenty years of service, Major Watson is currently the Australian student at the French Command and Staff College, Ecole de Guerre, in Paris and will be attending this year’s official ceremonies in Great Britain and France on 5 and 6 June. He is married and has two children.