Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP) was a top-secret unit formed in 1941 on the instructions of Lord Louis Mountbatten, based on Hayling Island.
during the Second World War. COPP teams undertook reconnaissance and surveys and penetrated behind enemy lines, particularly in coastal locations. Members were awarded over 30 medals in three years of WW2 operations.
COPP carried out the critical coastal surveys of the Normandy beaches in France, supporting the Allied invasion plans for D-Day in 1944 during WW2.
Did You Know?
Under the cover of dark on a cold December night in 1943, a COPP team left Gosport for reconnaissance of Gold Beach, one of the five planned D-Day landing sites. The survey results were so successful that the Americans asked for similar COPP support for the Omaha Beach landing site.
COPP’s initial mission was to carry out reconnaissance of beaches on Rhodes, ahead of Operation Cordite, a proposed invasion of Rhodes in Greece in April 1941.
The role of COPP soon grew. Many of the crews of landing craft often had limited seagoing experience. This meant they were prone to drift during their approach to a landing beach. These large craft easily veered off course under the pressure of sea currents and enemy fire from the beachhead.
Keeping the military assault units together was important, to fight effectively against the enemy. Drift meant a fighting unit could be spread out along the length of a beach, instead of landing close together as planned.
Also, if a landing craft drifted during its approach, it could also end up on a soft section of beach where soldiers, tanks and vehicles would get stuck.
Did You Know?
COPP teams took soil samples to understand the load-bearing capacity of the beach Allied forces planned to land on. Nothing would be more embarrassing than your tanks getting bogged down in soft sand!
The second part of COPP’s role was on the assault day of the invasion. Their job was to guide in the first wave of landing craft, so they landed in the right place.
During WW2 COPP teams were also involved in amphibious assaults in the Mediterranean and the Far East.
The teams in COPP were simply ordinary men but doing extraordinary things. Louis Mountbatten, chief of Combined Operations and Supreme Allied Commander in South East Asia, understood the true significance of COPP, saying:
“None of the great amphibious operations of the last war could have been carried out, with such efficiency and skill, without the vital information that COPP provided.“
- Read more about the COPP heroes at the Discover Hayling site – click here
- Read more about Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott COPP’s creator – click here
- How COPP teams avoided detection in enemy territory – click here