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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey
@coppsurvey.uk
630 followers 210 following 1.5K posts
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
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · Nov 11
So many new followers, so a quick intro!

My interest in COPP is from family history research that got out of control – my grandfather Jack Crane joined COPP in August 1944. I'm still 'learning as I go' (and sharing it in public as I go).
Left: Jack Crane at 140 OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit), Newark, in 1943. Right: me at Hayling Island Sailing Club (formerly COPP Depot) in 2011.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d
🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 10’s Nick Carter (📸 from IWM Documents.7063) and another unknown rating help Partisans and artillery land on Mljet island (📸 Bosko Bunusevac/Adobe Stock) as German forces continue to be 'encouraged' to withdraw. Few details of this op are known.

▶️ buff.ly/iKDum3g
Nick Carter, extracted from a group shot with his COPP 10 colleagues. Modern-day view looking over the tree-covered rocky slopes of Mljet island.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d
Who attended the meeting isn't recorded in the file. But Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Ops (📸 IWM A 13218), is widely credited with strongly supporting COPP's formation, which finally happened towards the end of November. /🧵
Louis Mountbatten inspecting ratings during a visit to a Combined Operations training base in Dundonald, Scotland, in December 1942.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d
But now at Combined Operations HQ a meeting is held to thrash out the full scope of intelligence that planners of amphibious landings might require from COPP teams, if they get the go-ahead to form (⌨️ National Archives DEFE 2/4).

▶️ buff.ly/P2PGFHq
Extract from a summary of the meeting held at Combined Operations Headquarters on 6 October 1942.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d
It's been more than 1½ years since Willmott got the nod from Andrew Cunningham, C-in-C Med (📸 IWM A 20032), to do beach recce on Rhodes.

But Willmott's subsequent lobbying of Combined Ops HQ for the establishment of a permanent beach recce unit failed to prompt action.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d
🗓️ #OTD in 1942 – Nigel Willmott is in the Med with a thrown-together team doing beach recce ahead of Op Torch. In his absence, back in the UK his long-standing plea for beach recce to be taken seriously is starting to produce permanent results. (📸 IWM A 17721, illustrative) #NavalHistory 🧵
Landing Craft Assault (LCA) training at the Combined Training Centre (CTC) in Kabrit, Egypt, where earlier in the war Nigel Willmott had been on the staff and had lobbied for the establishment of a permanent beach-reconnaissance unit.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 9d
2/2 The schedule is:

2pm Event begins (with an exhibition)
3pm Afternoon tea
4pm Anniversary cake cutting
4.45pm Hauling down the White Ensign

🎟️ Tickets are £20 per person. Contact HISC direct to book: 02392 463 768
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 9d
📆 PUBLIC EVENT | Hayling Island Sailing Club (HISC)

Saturday 25 October marks 80 years since COPP was disbanded at the end of the war. HISC, which served as COPP Depot, is putting on an event to mark it. 1/2
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10d
The Koodoo men have been told they're not to land on the beaches, having to make do with periscope observations instead. But they're still able to gather useful information to feed back to the Torch planners. (✏️ National Archives, DEFE 2/588) /🧵

▶️ buff.ly/s5G33Ak
Sketch map produced by Party Koodoo showing their proposed approach routes for landing craft to the Apples Green and Apples White beaches that would be used during the Operation Torch landings. Both approach tracks originate from the same release position. A proposed location for a submarine beacon is shown on the Apples Green approach.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10d
They’d set out from Gibraltar in submarines P.222 and HMS Seraph (📸 IWM FL 3566).

(Seraph under skipper Bill Jewell will go on to acquire a reputation as a 'secret ops' specialist sub, carrying out Operation Mincemeat among others.)
Submarine HMS Seraph on the surface, with its original number (P.219) painted on its conning tower.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10d
🗓️ #OTD in 1942 – Party Koodoo (a pre-COPP unit assembled at short notice by eventual COPP founder Nigel Willmott) starts carrying out beach recce near Algiers and Oran ahead of Operation Torch, next month's landings in Vichy French-held north Africa (🗺️ from London Gazette). #NavalHistory 🧵
Sketch map of the Operation Torch landings at Algiers, reproduced from Admiral Andrew Cunningham’s post-operation report which was published in the London Gazette.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 14d
More on the COPP Heroes website ▶️ buff.ly/QO2ENVo
Events | discover-hayling
Home
buff.ly
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 14d
🗓️ #OTD in 2012 – the COPP memorial on Hayling Island is dedicated by Countess Mountbatten, Patricia Knatchbull, daughter of former Chief of Combined Operations, Louis Mountbatten.

Also in attendance are COPP veterans and General Sir David Richards, then Chief of the Defence Staff.
Countess Mountbatten arrives at the memorial and is greeted by General Sir David Richards.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
Find out more about the X-craft crew who worked with COPP:
▶️ buff.ly/vIWwT5p
COPP Survey | The X-craft crews
Although they weren’t part of Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP), the X-craft crews involved in the Normandy reconnaissance and invasion played a significant role.
www.coppsurvey.uk
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
In Operation Source, Tirpitz was successfully attacked by X-6 and X-7. Skippers Donald Cameron and Geoffrey Place were both awarded the VC.

X-7 was sunk after laying its charge, killing two of its crew, Lionel Whittam and Bill Whitley. (📸 Adobe Stock) /🧵
Modern-day view of Tirpitz’s anchorage in Altafjord, where X-7 men Lionel Whittam and Bill Whitley lost their life.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
Once back in the UK, Shean and Coles (📸 IWM A 26937) and Brooks are assigned to X-22 and start training with COPP in Scotland.

But it's a fractious relationship between Shean and the COPP men, and they're eventually reassigned to X-24 and their work with COPP comes to an end.
Max Shean (left) and Vernon Coles (right) photographed later in the war.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
For Max Shean, Joe Brooks and Vernon Coles, their attack on Scharnhorst doesn't even get underway. Their sub X-9 was lost with its passage crew (Edward Kearon, Harry Harte and George Hollett) when its tow line broke while being towed to Norway by sub HMS Syrtis (📸 IWM FL19599).
HMS Syrtis underway on the surface.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
But now their attack on Scharnhorst (📸 IWM HU55631) has to be abandoned as X-10 develops defects. They sit on the bottom of a fjord rather than head to sea; they'll wait until they hear explosions from the other subs' attacks, rather than risk detection and compromise the op.
Scharnhorst photographed earlier in the war while underway in heavy seas.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
In X-10 are Ken Hudspeth (📸 IWM A 19626), Bruce Enzer, Leslie Tilley and Geoff Harding. Hudspeth, Enzer and Tilley will all be involved in both reconnaissance of Omaha Beach and providing beach-marking for Juno Beach on D-Day.
Informal portrait photograph of Ken Hudspeth wearing naval uniform.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
Among the men involved in the operation are a number who will within months go on to work with COPP, too, when preparations for COPP's Normandy reconnaissance gets underway.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – X-craft midget subs from the 12th Submarine Flotilla carry out Operation Source, an attack targeting the German ships Tirpitz (📸 IWM A 19625), Scharnhorst and Lützow, which are anchored in fjords in Norway (🗺️ Adobe Stock). #NavalHistory 🧵
Air reconnaissance photograph showing Tirpitz at anchor in Norway. Map of Europe with the location of Operation Source, in northern Norway, circled.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
As well as COPP, men from other SOG units – SBS, SRU (Sea Reconnaissance Unit) and RM Detachment 385 – enjoy the celebrations.

Over coming weeks, the teams will start their journeys home, with 'hostilities only' men looking forward to being demobbed. 2/2
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19d
🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – senior NCOs in the Small Operations Group (SOG) host a 'farewell dinner' at their base, Hammenhiel Camp in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). They also stage a variety show. It's dubbed "the final Combined Operation". (📸 RM Museum) #NavalHistory 1/2

▶️ buff.ly/SSMQqaH
Cover of the programme produced for ‘The Final Fling’ variety show, featuring four men representing the different services drinking from a bucket labelled ‘Bubbly’ through straws.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 24d
It looks as though Schürch will be covered in tonight's @ww2tv.bsky.social show titled 'Aiding the enemy'

www.youtube.com/live/ecFFkqs...
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 24d
Schürch is found guilty of treachery. He will go on to be executed in Pentonville prison, north London, on 4 January 1946 – the last man to be executed in the UK for an offence other than murder. (📸 Adobe Stock, illustrative) /🧵

Full story: ▶️ buff.ly/33oBkBp
Recent photograph of landings inside Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, which was modelled on Pentonville Prison.
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coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 24d
Most of the COPP men escaped after the Italian surrender and found their way back to the UK, where they were interviewed by intelligence staff who were following up rumours about Schürch.

But Hart is the only one to give 'in person' evidence at today's court martial. (📸 own)
The Duke of York Headquarters in London, where Theodore Schürch's court martial was held. The building is now home to the Saatchi Gallery.
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