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COPP Survey

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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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.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

It's a lovely day for a small gathering at the sailing club. Thank you HISC for inviting us!

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

Later SCOBBS will morph into the Combined Operations Beach and Boat Section (COBBS), then the Small Raids Wing (SRW) of the Royal Marines' Amphibious School based at Eastney (📸 Rob Crane).

It's from the SRW that the modern-day Special Boat Service (SBS) later emerges. /🧵

The former Royal Marines barracks at Eastney, in Southsea, Portsmouth.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

Among the men joining Hasler's staff is COPP 3's former senior officer Alex Hughes (📸 Jack Crane family).

▶️ buff.ly/GGmhvqf

Hughes' COPP team had been part of the Small Operations Group (SOG) based in Ceylon at a time when Hasler was SOG's second in command.

Alex Hughes (circled) with other COPP men on the beach at Myebon in Burma (now Myanmar) during the Second World War.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – with the end of the war, COPP is officially disbanded. But it won't be long before the legacy is revived when 'cockleshell hero' Royal Marines officer 'Blondie' Hasler (📸 IWM A 29378) sets up the School of Combined Operations Beach and Boat Section (SCOBBS). #NavalHistory 🧵

Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler, who had formed the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD) that undertook Operation Frankton, the ‘cockleshell heroes’ raid on shipping in Bordeaux.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

He is Winston Churchill's preferred pick instead of Admiral Charles Little, C-in-C Portsmouth (📸 IWM A 16364), who’d been nominated during the Quebec Conference in August 1943. But Little’s role in Portsmouth means he'll later play a key role overseeing COPP’s Normandy ops. 2/2

Admiral Charles Little (right) aboard his flagship HMS Victory in May 1943, with its commanding officer Captain Grant (left) and visitor the Archbishop of Canterbury.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – Admiral Bertram Ramsay (📸 IWM A 23443) is appointed Allied Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force (ANCXF) – the first of the senior Operation Overlord commanders to be put in place. #NavalHistory 1/2

Bertram Ramsay walking across the roof of his headquarters at Norfolk House in London, October 1943.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

Hearing Sayers' cries, COPP 7’s Ruari McLean dives into the dark sea to try and rescue him. His efforts are in vain.

Sayers’ body is never recovered. We remember him.🕯️

buff.ly/jrKEoTc

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

Sayers is in a landing craft that's being towed by ML 438. When the tow line between the two vessels breaks, the motor launch applies full turn and in the darkness strikes the landing craft on its bow, toppling Sayers into the water.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – Bernard Sayers, one of the landing craft crew attached to COPP in south-east Asia, loses his life in the Bay of Bengal. He’s with COPP 7 returning to Chittagong (Chattogram in modern-day Bangladesh) after completing recce ops near Akyab.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 1d

Hayling Island Sailing Club, site of COPP Depot, looked very scenic when I arrived earlier.

Hayling Island Sailing Club on a spit of land in the distance with low-level tides in the foreground.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 4d

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 2's Mike Dawson and Jim Younger return to Italy from ops in the Gulf of Corinth. They'd probably been assisting Bucketforce, advancing eastwards towards Athens on the southern side of the Gulf of Corinth. (📸 IWM NA 19231) #NavalHistory

▶️ buff.ly/HgSi4Si

British troops entering Corinth, October 1944.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d

COPP 2's role is to check that Dubrovnik harbour is clear for ships carrying Floydforce from Italy. Later, while searching a store of sea mines, Richard Fyson (📸 via 'Stealthily by Night') sets off a booby trap and suffers a depressed skull fracture. The Partisan guide with him is killed. /🧵

Informal portrait photograph of Richard Fyson.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d

Floydforce includes artillery led by Colonel Tom Jago (left, 📸 IWM NA 22141) supported by Commandos. Lightly armed Partisan forces have found it impossible to breach ancient forts that retreating German forces are using for sanctuary; Floydforce has been allowed in to help breach the walls.

Colonel Tom Jago (seated, left) when he was Chief of Staff to Land Forces Adriatic (LFA) Brigadier George Davy (centre) later in the war.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d

There are tensions between the British 'advance party' and Partisan officials in the city, resulting in the Brits being detained in the Imperial Hotel (📸 s1rus/Adobe Stock) until their presence on Yugoslav soil is given 'the green light' by communist leader Marshal Tito.

Modern-day view of the Imperial Hotel in Dubrovnik, Croatia; now the Grand Hilton Imperial.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 5d

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – Men from COPP 2 including Clifford Irvine (L) and Bob Gillingham (R) (📸 Peter Palmer via Simon Hatch) join Floydforce in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia (modern-day Croatia), which has recently been liberated by Partisans from German occupation. #NavalHistory 🧵

▶️ buff.ly/aoZlQjb

From left to right, Clifford Irvine, SBS man Ron Loasby and Bob Gillingham photographed in Algeria in early 1943.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 8d

There's still time to book for next weekend's event that's being put on by HISC.

The exhibition is from 12:30 onwards, with the event itself starting at 2pm.

Contact HISC direct to book at £20 per person: 02392 463768

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 24d

📆 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

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 9d

But with post-war tension and growing conflict, requests for SRW staff for ad hoc operations increased. Overstretched by demand, soon some SRW men were 'spun off' to focus on operations. Their unit was given a familiar name: the Special Boat Section was reborn. (📸 Crown) /🧵

Two SBS men during an exercise with their faces blurred out.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 9d

Within a year SCOBBS was placed under Royal Marines control, merged with the remnants of the RM Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD) and moved to Eastney. By the early 50s it had become the Small Raids Wing (SRW) of the RM Amphibious School. (📸 IWM A 31579 illustrative)

Scene from a landing exercise carried out not long after the end of the Second World War.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 9d

It was a non-operational unit, created to ensure the experience and knowledge gained during the war wasn't lost. It covered beach reconnaissance, too, with former COPP officer Alex Hughes on its staff. Fremington Manor provided the officers' mess and offices. (📸 IWM Docs.2222)

Alex Hughes photographed at Hammenhiel Camp in Sri Lanka where COPP was part of the Small Operations Group (SOG). Blondie Hasler was SOG's second in command.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 9d

At the end of the Second World War, the majority of 'small boat' special forces were disbanded. But Blondie Hasler and others kept the idea alive and in 1946 the School of Combined Operations Beach and Boat Section (SCOBBS) formed, based at Fremingtion Army Camp. (📸 IWM A 29378)

Blondie Hasler.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 9d

🏠 Fancy owning a small bit of SBS history? 🧵

If you've got a spare £1.75m, and don't mind possibly having to run a care home, now's your chance! Be quick, though: it's already "under offer".

buff.ly/aFYTVzh

Impressive former care home property in North Devon for sale for £1.75m

Specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co, has been instructed to sell the former care home, Fremington Manor, in North Devon.

www.christie.com

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10d

With Peacock's fate unknown, Young (🎨 John Worsley/National Army Museum) scales back 3 Commando Brigade's op to a single-night 'snatch' raid, with COPP 8's Freddie Ponsonby and Alec Colson guiding them. It will take place early next month. /🧵

▶️ buff.ly/SDMH5WS

Painted portrait of Peter Young sitting in a chair.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10d

But on the second night of recce Mike Peacock (📸 on right, via Alec Colson family) fails to rendezvous with his canoe after swimming ashore. The other COPP men heard no commotion. A quick search of the bay (🛰️ Google Earth) doesn't find a body. They return to Teknaf without him.

COPP 8’s Mike Peacock (right) with Alec Colson in India earlier in the war.

Modern satellite view of Ondaw, the bay being recce’d on the night Mike Peacock went missing.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10d

3 Commando Brigade recently arrived from Europe (📸 CVA). CO Peter Young is keen his men experience local conditions by seizing the island and use it as a base to harass mainland Japanese supply lines before withdrawing. He asks COPP 8 to investigate the island's beaches first.

Men from 3 Commando Brigade training for urban fighting in bomb-damaged Limehouse, London, before the Normandy D-Day landings.

COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10d

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 8 starts Operation David, intended to be a multi-night recce of Kyunthaya Island off the western coast of Burma (Myanmar) (🗺️ via McMaster University). They'll return to base at Teknaf between each night's recce. #NavalHistory 🧵

Map of the western coast of Burma (Myanmar) indicating the daily journey from Teknaf to Kyunthaya island; neither location is named on the map.