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🗓️ #OTD in 1942 – Party Koodoo (a pre-COPP unit assembled at short notice by eventual COPP founder Nigel Willmott) starts carrying out beach reconnaissance 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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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 30/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 2's Richard Fyson and Clifford Irvine start a recce operation at Sarandë in Albania. North of the town, Commandos and Partisans have been carrying out Operation Mercerised (📸 IWM NA 18949), attempting to cut off German forces withdrawing from nearby Corfu. 1/2

A patrol heading out into the mountains during Operation Mercerised.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 27/09/2026

🗓️ #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 (centre).

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 26/09/2026

🎧 I'm looking forward to listening to this later. Before becoming a hugely influential figure in the SAS, Brian Franks coordinated COPP's Normandy recce operations, liaising with the various units that were involved in planning them – no small task! Spotify: buff.ly/FAz3kTO

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 22/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – X-craft submarines 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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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 22/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – senior NCOs in the Small Operations Group (SOG), which includes COPP, host a 'farewell dinner' at their base, Hammenhiel Camp in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) (📜 RM Museum). There's also a variety show titled The Final Fling. #NavalHistory 1/2 ▶️ buff.ly/YuPxvwJ

Cover of the menu produced for the farewell dinner held at Hammenhiel Camp, depicting four men representing the different services drinking through straws from a bucket labelled ‘Bubbly’.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 21/09/2026

I may have been a bit 'over tired' by the end of Day 2 ... Thanks to everyone who came to talk and to the Royal Engineers Museum for hosting!

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19/09/2026

All set up for Day 1 of the War Winning Engineering weekend at the Royal Engineers Museum – pop upstairs and come and say hello if you're visiting!

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 17/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – Archie Hart (third right, 📸 via 'A History of Third Lanark AC' Facebook group), an ex-COPP man who was taken POW during beach recce of Sicily in early 1943, gives evidence in London during the court martial of British fascist Theodore Schürch. #NavalHistory 🧵

Four Third Lanark footballers standing in a line face the camera. They're in front of a football-ground stand that’s full of supporters. Archie Hart is second from the right, arms folded, with his shirt's collar up. Three of the men, including Hart, are wearing outfield kit; the fourth, wearing a jumper, was presumably the goalkeeper.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 17/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP's Nigel Willmott tells D-Day planners that he'll need no fewer than four X-craft midget submarines (📸 IWM A 22899) if his men are to properly recce Normandy beaches right up to the currently-planned D-Day in early May '44. #NavalHistory 🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/HVUbXqB

Midget submarine X-25, which wasn’t involved in COPP operations, underway on the surface in Scotland.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 15/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 10 start a quick-fire sequence of operations on Šolta (📸 Adobe Stock), an island off the coast of Yugoslavia (now Croatia). They are part of a concerted effort to force German units to abandon the island. #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/XVGHfHA

View along part of the northern Šolta coast, near Stomorska. It's unknown if any COPP 10 operations were in this precise area of the island.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 13/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1940 – Roger Keyes, Director of Combined Operations (📸 IWM HU 139651), visits 8 Commando and is given a Folbot demonstration in the unlikely surroundings of Burnham-on-Crouch. It's the first official step to forming the Commandos' Special Boat Section (SBS). 🧵

Sir Roger Keyes (left) taking part in the funeral procession for men killed during the First World War’s Zebrugge raid.

Modern view of the river front at Burnham-on-Crouch, where 8 Commando was based immediately following its formation. On the left is the Royal Burnham Yacht Club, which 8 Commando used as its officers' mess.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 12/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 2 had little involvement in Operation Dragoon, the landings in southern France in mid-August. But now it's complete, they leave their base at Château de Fornali in northern Corsica (📸 Hemis/Alamy Stock Photo). #NavalHistory 1/2

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.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 11/09/2026

A great first day at We Have Ways Fest. Canoes! DD tanks! And some other stuff.

A Mark VII canoe with its lateen sale rigged

RN Beach Commando Re-enactors giving a talk about COPP

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 11/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 10's Hugh Maynard, Leslie Parker and George Talbot take part in landings on Brač, an island off Yugoslavia (now off Croatia). Setting out from their base on Vis (🗺️ via McMaster University), they guide in RM Commandos and supporting artillery guns. #NavalHistory 1/2

Extract from a strategic map of Yugoslavia with Vis and the attack on Brač indicated.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 09/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP 2 and COPP 5 take part in Operation Avalanche, the landings at Salerno in Italy (📸 NARA 204910498) #Salerno #Avalanche The southern, American beaches, where there's an offshore sandbar, have been causing the planners concern. #NavalHistory 🧵

Landing craft ferrying troops and equipment to the shore during Operation Avalanche, the landings in Salerno Bay.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 08/09/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1942 – Nigel Willmott receives orders to assemble Party Koodoo–Inhuman to recce beaches in Algeria ahead of Operation Torch, the forthcoming landings in Vichy French-held north Africa (📸 NARA 175738957). #NavalHistory🧵

US forces landing during Operation Torch in November 1942.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 03/09/2026

There's a week to go until this talk about COPP's Normandy D-Day operations from a man whose father took part! Still time to get a ticket of you're in the Lymington area ⬇️

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 30/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP 5, with additional SBS men, arrive at Salerno Bay in HMS Shakespeare to carry out recce ahead of Operation Avalanche. Air recce has suggested a sand bar off the US beaches that needs examining. (🗺️ from 'Survey by Starlight') #NavalHistory 🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/qtN15Mh

Map showing the reconnaissance operations carried out in Salerno Bay from HMS Shakespeare, taken from Ralph Stanbury’s post-war book ‘Survey by Starlight’.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 29/08/2026

I'm looking forward to this at the Royal Engineers Museum! I'll be there with a few items on display to tell how COPP's sappers contributed to winning the war. Link ⬇️ It'll also be a sneak preview of a new COPP project I've been woking on over the past few months with a few others – more soon!

Royal Engineers Museum poster: WWII War Winning Engineering Weekend, 19 to 20 September 2026

Featuring Spitfire replica, re-enactors, meet the curators, MG42 and Browning blank firing, an interactive mural, expert historians, WWII vehicles and live misuc from Miss Holliday Swing (Sunday only)

QR code link to the Royal Engineers Museum's event page.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 27/08/2026

👂Want to hear about COPP's pre-D-Day recces? If you're near Lymington, I recommend this talk by Robbie Scott-Bowden, whose dad Logan was one of the COPP men who did it. It includes family video footage of Logan revisiting the beaches in the 1990s. 🎟️ tinyurl.com/59ufrp8d

Flyer for the event which takes place on 10 September

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 27/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – a meeting at Cossac HQ Norfolk House, London, discusses recce requirements for Operation Neptune, the Allied landings in Normandy planned for May 1944. COPP boss Nigel Willmott advocates using X-craft midget subs (📸 IWM A 22900). #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/Uq9Bakr

X-25 on the surface. An officer is standing on the casing alongside a raised induction pipe, which is used to draw in air for the diesel engine. X-25 wasn’t used for COPP operations.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 25/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – a number of men from COPP 10 support Operation Grandfather 1, landing artillery guns on the Pelješac peninsula in Yugoslavia (modern-day Croatia) to bombard German forces on nearby Korčula. (🗺️ via McMaster University; 📸 Adobe Stock) #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/t4y3nRB

Map of the western tip of the Pelješac peninsula around Lovište with the location of the three landing beaches used during Operation Grandfather 1 marked.

Modern view of the area around Lovište with the location of the three landing beaches indicated (although Peter Beach is just out of shot in the foreground).

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 23/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 10's George Talbot and Nick Carter (📸 from IWM Docs.7063) are doing recce near a coastal village in the Adriatic when they get 'trapped' in their canoe under a jetty: a German sentry walks onto it and stands inches above them. #NavalHistory 🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/JXayp4j

Composite image of George Talbot (left) and Nick Carter.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 17/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – after three days of on–off discussion, the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Quebec Conference in Canada agree outline plans for Operation Overlord. The landings will take place in Normandy. (📸 IWM TR 1347) Within days, COPP will start planning recce operations. #NavalHistory 1/2

William Mackenzie King (Prime Minister of Canada), Franklin D. Roosevelt (President of the United States), Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of the UK) and the Earl of Athlone (Governor General of Canada) during the Quebec Conference.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 15/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – VJ Day is celebrated (📸 in London, IWM D 25636). Within a month, COPP men attached to the Small Operations Group (SOG), based in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), will start to make their way home. ▶️ buff.ly/f7BfZJs

A row of people link arms to celebrate VJ Day in London's Piccadilly Circus.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 10/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 10's George Talbot (📸 IWM Docs.7063) starts a solo recce of beaches on the Pelješac peninsula (📸 Adobe Stock) in Yugoslavia (now part of Croatia). Circumstances in the Adriatic mean he'll recce in daylight over two days. #NavalHistory 🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/VgeyfBV

Modern-day view of part of the Pelješac peninsula.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 06/08/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 7 leaves the naval base at Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in sub HMS Tudor (📸 IWM A21448) to do recce around north-west Sumatra (now part of Indonesia). It's Tudor's first patrol after arriving in SE Asia from the UK. #NavalHistory 1/2 ▶️ buff.ly/YUR61lj

HMS Tudor photographed during training in Scotland in early 1944.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 04/08/2026

I finally visited the Combined Military Services Museum last Friday, after years of not getting around to it. It’s a classic museum, rammed with weapons, uniforms – and military canoes! The aluminium Mark VII (bottom) was used in south-east Asia while my grandfather was there with COPP. 1/3

The Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon, Essex.

Three military canoes on display at the Combined Military Services Museum.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 31/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 10 contributes to Operation Decomposed 2 off the coast of Yugoslavia. Artillery guns (protected by Partisan forces) land on Korčula island and bombard nearby German positions before withdrawing again. (📸 IWM NA 18092) #NavalHistory 1/2 ▶️ buff.ly/HcUhkjV

Ramped Cargo Lighters (RCLs) being loaded with artillery guns at Rukavac on Vis island, taken around the time of Operation Decomposed 2.

Map of Korčula marked to show the location of German positions fired on. The precise site where the British artillery guns were landed is unknown, but it was on the eastern end of the island.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 30/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP 5's Douglas Kent and Alf Thomas carry out their first recce in the Gulf of Gioia, part of planning for Operation Buttress, possible landings on the 'toe' of Italy. They're operating from the submarine HMS Shakespeare (📸 IWM A 16328). #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/O1kIrvf

HMS Shakespeare leaving Algiers, April 1943.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 30/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – just a couple of weeks after supporting Operation Husky in Sicily, COPP 6 carries out its first beach recce on ‘the sole' of Italy. They're operating near Capo Colonna, Crotone (🗺️ UK Hydrographic Office D/57/E12). #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/4jfXwfX

Extract from a topographical map of the Calabrian Peninsula, held in the UK Hydrographic Office’s archives, with the area around Capo Colonna highlighted. This reconnaissance was a prelude to possible assault landings in Operation Goblet.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 27/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 2 depart for recce of Port-Cros and Île du Levant (🗺️ UKHO), near Toulon in France, in sub HMS Untiring (📸 IWM FL 22144). It's part of intel gathering for Operation Dragoon, landings that will happen next month. #NavalHistory 🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/V2NJrQd

Extract from an early intelligence map assessing potential beaches and landing points to the east of Toulon. A blue arrow points to Port-Cros and Île du Levant.

HMS Untiring on the surface, date unknown.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 22/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – with recce due to commence soon for landings in southern Italy, COPP 5 starts two days of exercises out of Malta with sub HMS Shakespeare, including its skipper Mike Ainslie (right, 📸 IWM A 21262). #NavalHistory 1/2 ▶️ buff.ly/m0lEtNc

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.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 20/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – John Maxwell and Ernest Smith, two Royal Marines from Detachment 385 who were captured four months ago while on recce of Phuket with COPP, are beheaded by officers from the Japanese army's intelligence staff. We remember them.🕯️ ▶️ buff.ly/boDxhAr

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.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 19/07/2026

🆕 I love chance discoveries. I was searching the IWM phto collection for something else when I came across this photo of Reg Atkinson with other POWs who'd been released from Thai captivity at the end of the war. (📸 IWM A 30479) 1/3

Reg Atkinson (circled) with other freed POWs on a ship in Colombi, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in September 1945 while awaiting transit home.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 16/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 3 leaves the UK in liner Strathaird (📸 National Library of Australia 1614551), heading for Ceylon (Sri Lanka). #NavalHistory In nine days they'll be followed by COPP 6 as focus starts to shift from Europe and the Med to south-east Asia. ▶️ buff.ly/JQia5It

Strathaird passing beneath Sydney Harbour Bridge before the war.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 15/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 2011 – the COPP Heroes Memorial team holds a fundraiser event at Hayling Island's Station Theatre. They're raising funds to erect a memorial on the island, where COPP was based. Guest of honour is COPP veteran Jim Booth (📸 Crown copyright). #NavalHistory 🔗 buff.ly/TMZmhry

Jim Booth photographed at the unveiling of the COPP memorial in 2012.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 09/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – COPP 10 arrives on Vis, an island off the coast of German-occupied Yugoslavia (now Croatia). They go on to be one of two COPP teams active in Yugoslavia. (🗺️ via McMaster University) #NavalHistory 🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/J16Ivkq

Extract from a strategic map of Yugoslavia with Vis highlighted.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 09/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – Operation Husky takes place as Allied forces land on Sicily. After months of reconnaissance operations, a number of COPP teams are out providing beach marking. (🗺️ via Library and Archive Canada) #NavalHistory 🧵

Map showing dispositions ahead of Operation Husky, landings on Sicily.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 06/07/2026

Last week I went to York for the Kohima memorial service, organised by the inspirational Kohima Educational Trust. After a talk by the always-engaging Rob Lyman the night before, it was humbling to meet so many relatives of men who took part in arguably the turning point of the Burma campaign.

People listen to the service outside York Minster.

People gather at the Kohima memorial after the service.

Wreaths laid at the memorial during the service.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 06/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – subs HMS Unruffled (men from COPP 5), Unseen (COPP 6) and Unrivalled (also COPP 6) sail from HMS Talbot, the sub base in Malta (📸 Adobe Stock), to act as markers for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily (🗺️ Govt of Canada). #NavalHistory 🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/sWVNdlV

Modern day view of the buildings that during the Second World War formed the submarine base HMS Talbot on Manoel Island, Valletta, Malta.

Map showing dispositions for Operation Husky, the landings on Sicily.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 03/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – after staying under canvas near Porto Vecchio in Corsica, COPP 2 relocates to accommodation at Château de Fornali on its northern coast (📸 Hemis/Alamy). ▶️ buff.ly/MngMnpN Allied forces are building up for Operation Dragoon, landings in southern France. #NavalHistory

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 01/07/2026

I was glad to play a small part this online exhibition by the Royal Engineers Museum. Check out how war-winning engineering helped the D-Day landings. warwinningengineering.co.uk

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 01/07/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 2015 – King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, meets COPP veterans during an event at the COPP memorial on Hayling Island (📸 PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo). Sadly, none of the COPP veterans are still alive. #NavalHistory

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).

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 26/06/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1992 – COPP founder Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott dies in Cyprus, where he lives. He's 81. His influence extends beyond COPP: with Roger Courtney and Blondie Hasler, many see him as a 'founding father' of the modern-day SBS. (📸 Neal Russell) #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/ObgYzAJ

Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott photographed post-war in Royal Navy captain’s uniform. (via Special Forces Roll of Honour website)

The headstone of Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott's grave in a cemetery in Cyprus.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 25/06/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1944 – 🕯️Caruth Main and Eric Fletcher of COPP 9 – who are 'on loan' to Force 'S' in Normandy – are killed when LCH 185 (📸 IWM A 19166), the landing craft they're in, sets off a mine and sinks. Their bodies are never recovered. #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/VU7aBqJ

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.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 24/06/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – just a couple of weeks before Operation Husky, the landings in Sicily (📸 IWM NY 3090), three COPP teams carry out a final round of reconnaissance. #NavalHistory 🧵

Aerial view looking down on landings on Sicily during Operation Husky, July 1943.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 16/06/2026

#OTD in 1944 – COPP 2 provides beach marking for Operation Brassard, an assault by mainly French forces on Elba, an island off the west coast of Italy. (🗺️ State Ministry in Charge of National Defence) #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/2QBGlVU

Map giving an outline of Operation Brassard from a 1970 French government publication.

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COPP Survey @coppsurvey.uk · 16/06/2026

🗓️ #OTD in 1943 – COPP 7 leaves the UK after finishing training (📸 Special Forces Roll of Honour website). Initially earmarked for ops in the Med, once there they receive orders to proceed to India and become the first COPP team in south-east Asia. #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/Q0RWOKf

Men from COPP 7 outside COPP Depot on Hayling Island after completing their training.

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