COPP Survey
LightNews LightNews
banner
coppsurvey.uk
COPP Survey
@coppsurvey.uk
640 followers 210 following 1.6K 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
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
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.
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – #OpPostAble Day 1 – COPP's X-craft recce of Omaha Beach starts as X-20 leaves sub base HMS Dolphin in Gosport.

Five men are squeezed inside: COPP's Nigel Willmott, Bruce Ogden Smith and Logan Scott-Bowden, plus Ken Hudspeth and Bruce Enzer from X-20's crew. #NavalHistory 🧵
X-24, one of X-20's 'sister boats', on display at the Submarine Museum in Gosport, near Portsmouth. Modern-day aerial view of Omaha Beach, looking west. Vierville-sur-Mer exit is just visible in the distance. The Les Moulins/St Laurent exit is in the middle distance. The Colleville-sur-Mer exit is out of sight to the bottom left.
January 17, 2026 at 10:30 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️#OTD in 1943 – COPPs 3 and 4, the first two operational teams, arrive in Algiers from the UK. After first using sub depot ship HMS Maidstone, they later are based at Cap Matifou on the far side of the Bay of Algiers. (📸 Peter Palmer via Simon Hatch) #NavalHistory

➡️ buff.ly/Z7asKt2
Group photo of men from COPP 3 and COPP 4 standing in what seems to be a garden, taken in Algeria in early 1943.
January 17, 2026 at 9:00 AM
coppsurvey.uk
A flying visit today to Chatham's Royal Engineers Museum to donate some non-COPP items I'd accumulated and check out the small but perfectly formed War Winning Engineering exhibition. Had a whale of a time.
External view of the Royal Engineers Museum View inside the War Winning Engineering exhibition Post-war Churchill AVRE
January 16, 2026 at 4:12 PM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – Operation Pungent, landings at Myebon in Burma (Myanmar) (📸 NARA), is preceded by COPP 3 demolishing beach-defence stakes. #NavalHistory

After that's done, senior officer Alex Hughes boards a motor launch to provide pilotage for the assault.

➡️ buff.ly/bNSgszT
American B-25 bombers attacking targets at Myebon. In the background are Royal Indian Navy vessels providing fire support, while landing craft are at the left edge of the image.
January 12, 2026 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – COPP 4, led by Denis Mackay (📸 Jack Crane family), starts an operation taking depth soundings in a river somewhere near Akyab (Sittwe) in Burma (Myanmar). #NavalHistory

Unfortunately very little is known about this operation at present.
Denis Mackay photographed on Ramree Island later in 1945, standing with a pipe in his mouth and shrubs and grasses behind him. Beyond that is water and distant land.
January 9, 2026 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – after last-minute confusion before COPP's first landing on the Normandy coast a few days ago, D-Day naval commander Admiral Bertram Ramsay (📸 IWM H 39152, on left) asserts his authority: their next Normandy op must be done using an X-craft midget submarine. #NavalHistory 🧵
Bertram Ramsay and Dwight D. Eisenhower outside Southwick House at the time of the D-Day landings in June 1944.
January 8, 2026 at 10:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – just weeks after COPP was formed, the first two teams (COPPs 3 and 4) sail from the Clyde in Otranto (📸 State Library of Victoria) as part of convoy KMF 7.

They've had hardly any training but have been called to the Med to start recce ops on Sardinia. #NavalHistory 1/2
The liner Otranto, which carried COPP 3 and COPP 4 to the Mediterranean in convoy KMF 7. (State Library of Victoria, H91.108/1608)
January 8, 2026 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – with Normandy D-Day recce ops now underway, it's decided that COPP founder Nigel Willmott, who's also leading COPP 1, will be appointed "Senior Officer, COPPs (J)", liaising between the three COPP teams doing ops and naval Force 'J' staff doing the planning. #NavalHistory 1/2
Nigel Willmott on Southsea beach in Portsmouth wearing an early version of the COPP swimsuit, January 1943.
January 7, 2026 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
My imposter syndrome gets triggered!
axe99.bsky.social Dave Long @axe99.bsky.social · 14d
...and while the discussion is limited, it is by no means shallow, even if the bays, rivers and chaungs often were). Can very happily recommend if military history/WW2 is your cup of tea. Great to see the author make good use of @coppsurvey.uk 's work as well 😎

#histbookchat
January 3, 2026 at 11:25 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – COPP 3 provides pilotage for Operation Lightning, landings on Akyab Island in Burma (Myanmar) that turn out to be unopposed. (🎞️ IWM S15 66) #NavalHistory

📽️
Landings at Akyab in Burma in January 1945
Allied forces landed at Akyab (now Sittwe) in Burma (Myanmar) on 3 January 1945. The landings turned out to be unopposed. COPP 3 had carried out reconnaissance on the night of 31 December to 1…
buff.ly
January 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – men from COPP land on the French coast for the first time as they carry out reconnaissance on Gold Beach near Ver-sur-Mer.

Logan Scott-Bowden and Bruce Ogden Smith swim ashore to check for peat beneath the sandy beach. #NavalHistory 🧵(long!)
Composite image of Logan Scott-Bowden (left) in Royal Engineers officers’ uniform and Bruce Ogden Smith in battledress. Modern-day aerial view looking eastwards over Ver-sur-Mer and the Normandy coast. La Rivière used to have its own identity, right on the coast, but has since pretty much been swallowed up as Ver-sur-Mer has extended towards it.
December 31, 2025 at 10:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – four men from COPP 3 spend what the team's log calls "the funniest New Year’s Eve ever" laid up on the low-lying Burne Rocks off Akyab Island (🗺️ via National Library of Australia) in Burma (now Myanmar). #NavalHistory 1/2

▶️ buff.ly/k3yp3ap
Map of Akyab Island marked to show the location of Burne Rocks (top left) and the eventual Operation Lightning landing beaches. Akyab town (now known as Sittwe) is on the opposite side of the island, to the south-east.
December 31, 2025 at 9:00 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – preparations for tomorrow's first X-craft recce of Normandy (📸 Adobe Stock) are in the air following a meeting at sub base HMS Dolphin (📸 IWM HU 84829) in Gosport.

C-in-C Portsmouth Charles Little and sub admiral Claud Barry have both been having concerns. #NavalHistory 🧵
Modern-day aerial photograph looking over the eastern end of what was Gold Beach at Ver-sur-Mer, towards Juno Beach. Fort Blockhouse (HMS Dolphin) photographed probably in the 1960s, looking towards Haslar Lake beyond.
December 30, 2025 at 9:00 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1942 – COPP is just a few weeks old when its officers are called to COHQ in London to be briefed for recce of Sardinia (for Operation Brimstone). COHQ's Hugh Faulkner (📸 IWM A 29481) prioritises which beaches should be looked at first. #NavalHistory 🧵

▶️ buff.ly/Sch2rrZ
Hugh Faulkner (back left, circled) photographed in June 1945 when on the staff of Admiral Sir Harold Burrough, Commander-in-Chief at Minden in Germany.
December 29, 2025 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP 6's Donald Amer and Peter Wild (📸 Peter Palmer via Simon Hatch) follow-up Christmas Day's unsuccessful recce of Normandy by taking part in Operation Bellpush Baker, again with the 712th Landing Craft (Survey) Flotilla. #NavalHistory 🧵

▶️ buff.ly/lBVRQsP
Peter Wild (centre left) and Donald Amer (centre right) in Normandy shortly after D-Day, standing with other men from COPP 6 in front of a damaged building.
December 28, 2025 at 9:00 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – the war doesn't stop for Christmas: COPP 6's Donald Amer and Peter Wild (📸 Peter Palmer via Simon Hatch) are the first COPP men to take part in pre-D-Day reconnaissance operations off the coast of Normandy. #NavalHistory 🧵
Peter Wild (centre left) and Donald Amer (centre right) in Normandy shortly after D-Day, standing with other men from COPP 6 in front of a damaged building.
December 25, 2025 at 10:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1942 – as newly formed COPP gets established, the Admiralty has to message Portsmouth command: "Request priority be given to supply of stores, equipment, transport and other facilities to CCO representatives [...] identified by codeword 'COPP'." (📄 from IWM Docs.20636) #NavalHistory 🧵
The message sent to Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. Its full text is: "Request priority be given to supply of stores, equipment, transport and other facilities to CCO [Chief of Combined Operations] representatives to meet a requirement to be identified by codeword COPP."
December 25, 2025 at 9:02 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – after surviving operations in Burma (now Myanmar), COPP 8's Geoff Richards is killed falling from a train in Madras (Chennai).

His team are on their way back to Hammenhiel Camp in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) when the accident happens.🕯️
Geoff Richards, circled, in a group photograph with his COPP 8 colleagues. (Photo via Judith King, in memory of Stanley Pond)
December 23, 2025 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – ahead of upcoming Normandy recce ops, COPP 1's Logan Scott-Bowden (left) and Bruce Ogden Smith set out to prove the planners' sceptical scientists wrong by carrying out a 'dummy run' on Brancaster beach in Norfolk (📸 Jason Wells/Adobe Stock). #NavalHistory 🧵
Composite image of Logan Scott-Bowden on left, wearing Royal Engineers officers’ uniform, and Bruce Ogden Smith on right, wearing battledress and with sergeant’s stripes on his arm. Modern view of Brancaster Beach with a dark patch visible in the sand beyond the remains of a concrete structure.
December 22, 2025 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – mini sub X-20 arrives in Portsmouth (📸 NARA 333361577) after two days of transport by rail from Faslane as preparations for COPP's first Normandy recce – pencilled in for the end of December – gather pace. #NavalHistory 🧵
Air reconnaissance photograph taken by the Luftwaffe earlier in the war, trimmed to focus on the area around Portsmouth dockyard.
December 20, 2025 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP 8 leave Cocanada (Kakinada) in India to carry out Operation Bunkum, recce of the Mayu Peninsula in Burma (Myanmar).

They travel in motor launch ML 437, commanded by Lieutenant 'Willo' Matthews (on right, 📸 IWM A 28504). #NavalHistory

▶️ buff.ly/tX3bZQY
'Willo' Matthews on right, wearing Lieutenant epaulettes, on the bridge of ML 437 alongside his second-in-command, who is wearing Sub-Lieutenant epaulettes. In the background the numbers 437 can be seen painted on the boat's funnel.
December 18, 2025 at 9:02 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – mini sub X-23 is launched at Faslane in Scotland. It's named Xiphias, after Xiphias gladius, the species name for swordfish (🎨 Adobe Stock).

Ironically, X-23 will go on to mark the approach to Sword Beach on D-Day (from 🎞️ IWM ADM 1260). #NavalHistory 🧵
Line illustration of a swordfish (Xiphias gladius). X-23 on D-Day alongside headquarters ship HMS Largs, with COPP 9's Geoffrey Lyne climbing up a rope ladder. The name 'Xiphias' is visible on a 'step' in X-23's casing.
December 13, 2025 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD 1944 – COPP 3 flies out of RAF Kankesanturai (now Jaffna International Airport) (📸 Google Earth) in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) heading for Reju Khal in modern-day Bangladesh. They travel via Madras (Chennai), Calcutta, Cumilla and Chittagong (Chattogram). #NavalHistory

➡️ buff.ly/Mo4RxSL
Modern-day satellite view of RAF Kankesanturai (now Jaffna International Airport) in northern Sri Lanka. It was the closest airfield to COPP's base with the Small Operations Group (SOG) at Hammenhiel Fort.
December 12, 2025 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP 8 men are aboard sub depot ship HMS Adamant (📸 IWM FL148) in Trincomalee harbour in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), ready to depart for reconnaissance of the Andaman Islands, when the op is suddenly cancelled. It's unknown precisely where the recces would have taken place. #NavalHistory
The submarine depot ship HMS Adamant painted in 'dazzle' camouflage paint.
December 8, 2025 at 9:01 AM
coppsurvey.uk
🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – Eric Harding is shot dead by a sniper as COPP 10, in Piraeus, are caught in the early skirmishes of the emerging Greek civil war.🕯️We remember him.

His body is recovered and he is later buried at sea in the Gulf of Athens.
Eric Harding (circled) with COPP 10 colleagues.
December 6, 2025 at 9:01 AM