The two islands have guns that would threaten the Dragoon assault force. They're taken early on the day of the eventual landings, but it's US Scouts & Raiders rather than COPP that lead in the landings. (📸 Library & Archives Canada) /🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/NzABqzQ

They're accompanied by Robert D. Burhans, an intelligence officer from the US–Canadian 1st Special Service Force who wants to go close to shore in a canoe. But once at sea a trial paddle shows Burhans isn't comfortable in the canoe, so it's swapped to a periscope-only recce.

🗓️ #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

COPP had suffered heavy losses during early recce of Sicily. One of the 'lessons learned' was that the COPP teams had to practise much more thoroughly with their sub crews before starting operations – launching/recovering the canoes and rendezvousing. (📸 IWM MH 22715) 2/2

🗓️ #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

🗓️ #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

Both were captured by Thai authorities while preparing to swim to the mainland after several days evading in Phuket's jungles. Maybe sensing which way the war was going, the Thais kept them in their own custody. Others on the operation weren't so lucky. ▶️ buff.ly/iOQ0XTw

Atkinson was a Royal Marine captured at the end of Operation Copyright, a recce of Phuket in March 1945 that was carried out by Atkinson's RM Detachment 385 but led by COPP's Captain Ian Mackenzie (📸 Australian War Memorial Museum).

🆕 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

🗓️ #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

🗓️ #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

The Adriatic sea is still keenly contested. It's unsafe for the surface vessels that carry COPP to the islands to hang around while the recce is done. Instead they return to Vis, leaving the COPP men ashore to recce in daylight, returning in a day or two. (📸 Adobe Stock) /🧵

Vis has remained in Partisan control throughout the war and now houses a small Allied contingent too. But nearby islands are still occupied by the Germans. Prepping for raids on these islands (📸 IWM NA 18094) will be a key part of COPP 10's role.

🗓️ #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

But there's no news from Bark East and COPP 6's Anthony Sayce (middle) and Victor Manning (front). After paddling away from sub Unseen to do beach marking, they're never heard from again. Their fate remains unknown; their bodies were never found.🕯️ /🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/Pi0x4Vo

Later, seeing congestion at nearby Beach 44, the COPP 5 men carry out an impromptu beach recce in a small bay (📸 Adobe Stock) to the side of the main beach, then open it up to traffic themselves, acting as their own beachmasters.

Another COPP 5 man, Douglas Kent, pilots landing craft to Beach 45 (📸 Adobe Stock). And COPP 5's senior officer, Ralph Stanbury, is aboard HQ ship HMS Bulolo (📸 IWM A 18095) having earlier stayed aboard sub HMS Unruffled to help position it as an outer marker.

At Acid North and South, COPP 5's Alf Thomas is in one canoe with an unknown paddler while Peter Matterson and Ronnie Williamson are in another to mark beaches for the British 5th and 50th Infantry Divisions. (📸 IWM NA 4326) ▶️ buff.ly/eS9CQQB

At Bark West (Beach 57), two canoes (Peter Wild/John Bowden and N. Rice/probably Ted Gray) mark for the 1st Canadian Div (📸 IWM CAN 3393). Last-minute COPP recce had found sandbars off this beach and it's later abandoned as the bars pose problems. ▶️ buff.ly/NSi9d9f

🗓️ #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 🧵

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.

Already at sea are subs Safari, Shakespeare and Seraph. They sailed from Algiers and Tunisia and are heading to the Gulf of Gela. They'll act as outer markers but have no COPP men aboard: US Scouts & Raiders will guide in these landings. /🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/Fer36Xh

For the British and Canadian beaches, COPP men will paddle canoes from the subs to be an inner marker for landing craft. Once the canoes have launched, the subs will head further out to act as an outer beacon for the approaching assault forces. (🗺️ US Center of Military History)

🗓️ #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

🗓️ #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

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

🗓️ #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

🗓️ #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

🗓️ #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

Also active – near Portopalo – is a team in HMS Unrivalled (📸 IWM A 14379). Little is known about this op, not even which COPP team was involved – though with COPP 5 and COPP 6 active elsewhere, it may well have been COPP 4. /🧵 ▶️ buff.ly/RreQ6Wj