COPP Survey

@coppsurvey.uk

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Dedicated to Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP), a top-secret unit that carried out covert reconnaissance of enemy-held beaches during the Second World War. Website: coppsurvey.uk

Illustrative photo of two COPP men (from COPP 1) manoeuvring a canoe through a submarine’s forward torpedo hatch.
The officers of HMS Shakespeare on the submarine’s gun deck, with Mike Ainslie standing furthest to the right. The photo was taken at Devonport in Plymouth in January 1944.
The gravestones of John Maxwell (inscribed “To his dear memory. Unforgotten. Unforgettable.”) and Ernest Smith (“Not just today but every day, in silence we remember.”) Images from the War Graves Photographic Project.
Map of Phuket showing the area where Operation Copyright was staged. (via National Library of Australia)
Ian Mackenzie photographed earlier in the war wearing Royal Engineers officers' uniform.
Reg Atkinson (circled) with other freed POWs on a ship in Colombi, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in September 1945 while awaiting transit home.
Strathaird passing beneath Sydney Harbour Bridge before the war.
Jim Booth photographed at the unveiling of the COPP memorial in 2012.
View over modern-day Lovište on the Pelješac peninsula, with Korčula island on the horizon. George Talbot recce’d here in August 1944 as a prelude to landing artillery guns to bombard German positions on Korčula.
Artillery gunners loading 25-pounders onto a Ramped Cargo Lighter (RCL) at Rukavac, Vis, August 1944.
Extract from a strategic map of Yugoslavia with Vis highlighted.
Adapted extract from a map of Operation Husky indicating the position for Anthony Sayce and Victor Manning’s canoe in Bark East (red circle).
Modern-day view of the beach that COPP 5 opened up (left). A cave they used as a 'headquarters' is in the small cliff to the right.
A modern-day view of Beach 45, which was also designated How Green Beach.
Adapted extract from a map of Operation Husky indicating the arrangement of the two COPP canoes in Acid North and Acid South (red circles).
Adapted extract from a map of Operation Husky indicating the arrangement of the two COPP canoes in Bark West (red circles).
Map showing dispositions ahead of Operation Husky, landings on Sicily.
People listen to the service outside York Minster.
Map showing the 8th Army’s landings during Operation Husky, taken from ‘Sicily and the Surrender of Italy’.
Modern day view of the buildings that during the Second World War formed the submarine base HMS Talbot on Manoel Island, Valletta, Malta.
Modern-day aerial view of Château de Fornali. In the background on the other side of a headland is a lighthouse. The château is situated on the banks of a small rocky bay.
Attendees at the memorial service held on 1 July 2015 at the COPP memorial. From left to right: Rear Admiral John Laing, King Charles III (then Prince of Wales), Timothy Knatchbull, John Ashford, Jim Booth, Roger Gilbert, Stanley Pond, Ian Piper (memorial stonemason).
Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott photographed post-war in Royal Navy captain’s uniform. (via Special Forces Roll of Honour website)
LCH 185 photographed earlier in the war while acting as a Landing Craft Infantry (LCI). It was converted to be a Landing Craft Headquarters before D-Day.
The submarine HMS Unrivalled returning to port in Malta with its Jolly Roger flag flying, date unknown.
An E-boat at the end of the war coming into port to surrender.
Modern-day view of Beach 45.
Aerial view looking down on landings on Sicily during Operation Husky, July 1943.
Map giving an outline of Operation Brassard from a 1970 French government publication.
Men from COPP 7 outside COPP Depot on Hayling Island after completing their training.
Captain George Phillips in naval uniform on the casing of a submarine at HMS Talbot, the 'stone frigate' submarine base on Malta.
Pre-war photograph of trawler En Avant in civilian use.
Aerial view of Fort Blockhouse, date unknown but probably taken shortly after the war.
Peacetime photograph of the trawler Darthema, with the number H214 on its bow.
Modern view of the jetties at Fort Blockhouse.
COPP 6 men in Normandy soon after D-Day. Left to right: Jack Watson, Peter Wild, Donald Amer, Ian Mackenzie.
COPP 9’s Geoffrey Lyne climbing aboard HMS Largs from X-23 after marking Sword Beach on D-Day.
Peter Wild photographed while with COPP in South-East Asia later in the war.
Arthur Cocks (circled) in LCT 947 as it leaves Portsmouth harbour to cross the Channel.
Ian Mackenzie photographed in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), later in the war.
DD tanks and landing craft approaching Queen Red beach in the first wave of the landings on Sword Beach. The photograph is from the book 'Down Ramps!' written by war correspondent Lambton Burn.
Extract from the Force 'S' assault plan annotated to show the two landing craft used by COPP turning away after leading in the DD tanks.
Landing Craft Personnel (Navigational) or LCP(N) at HMS James Cook, the Combined Operations navigation school, in Scotland.
Photograph of HMS Middleton taken in August 1943.
The 'D' for Dog flag flown by X-23 on D-Day, previously on display at the Submarine Museum in Gosport.
Photograph of a copy of the chart used in X-23 to position the submarine off Sword Beach on D-Day.
Composite image of Logan Scott-Bowden in Royal Engineers officers' uniform (via Special Forces Roll of Honour website) and Pegasus Bridge.
Modern-day view of Omaha beach, looking west.
Large-scale air reconnaissance mosaic looking down on the area around Omaha Beach, from Port-en-Bessin in the east (left of image) to La Pointe du Hoc in the west (right of image).
Arthur Briggs (left) and Cecil 'Billy' Fish photographed while with COPP in South-East Asia later in the war.
Geoff Galwey wearing civilian clothing, photographed before D-Day operations so it could be given to French Resistance people for fake identity documents if he had to go ashore.
A rod sounder (circled) in a display showing how a dinghy could be set up for beach marking.
Oblique aerial reconnaissance photograph of Courseulles-sur-Mer, with the church spire and water tower highlighted.