Today,
we’ll be looking at a story from the North-African campaign of the Second World
War, it was a tragic mystery - the answers to which would be half-buried, and locked away in the
middle of the Sahara Desert for nearly 70 years. The story begins in June of 1942. Flight Sergeant
Dennis Copping, aged 24, was part of 260 squadron in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserves, flying
Curtis P-40 Kittyhawks. Operating out of Al Wadi Al Jahid in Northern Egypt, Copping was to take
one of the P-40s (serial code ET574) on a ferry flight to a neighbouring British airbase to have
the undercarriage repaired, as it would no longer retract. This was probably in preparation of the
upcoming Summer offensive, as part of the effort to field all available aircraft. On the 28th June,
he would subsequently takeoff with the lowered undercarriage, heading West. This would be the
last time that Dennis Copping was seen. One source claims that a fellow pilot of 260 squadron would
see that Copping was flying in the wrong direction and tried to get his attention, to no avail.
The aircraft and pilot were reported missing after several hours, as is clear from the
Archive reports - but as to the whereabouts of both aircraft and pilot… this would remain
a mystery for seventy years. It’s unclear if an attempt to find Copping was actually made after
this disappearance. Search and rescue missions in the Sahara are notoriously difficult. The
rough terrain would have made it almost impossible to land a rescue aircraft,
and the complete lack of landmarks would have made it difficult for land-based rescuers to
zero in on a location spotted from the air. Fast forward to April 2012, and workers for a
prospecting Polish Oil company discovered the remarkably well-preserved remains of a
P-40. The extremely dry conditions had served to ‘mummify’ the aircraft, which had minimal rust and
decay - though it had been sand blasted by decades in the scorching heat and wind. The wings were
half-buried under the sand but in good condition, though the fabric covered control surfaces had
long-since rotted away, and the cockpit was moderately intact and seemingly undisturbed from
the day it had crashed. The plane seemed frozen in time, with live ammunition still loaded in the
magazines of the fighters six machine guns. Due to the planes remarkably good condition, identifying
it was a fairly easy task - and it was linked very quickly to Copping, who had been filed as missing
69 years, 9 months and 14 days earlier. Conspicuously missing from the crash site however,
was any sign of human remains - which could only mean one thing:
Copping had survived the crash landing. The big question was now what had happened to him?
Well, considering where Copping’s P-40 found itself, it was clear that at some point during
the flight a navigation error was made, and the aircraft would run low on fuel almost 300 km
from the closest inhabited area - and 370 km south-west of Cairo. Copping may have chosen
to land before he completely ran out of fuel though, as the propeller found in the desert
was twisted in a way that was consistent with rough landings that were done under power, but
its impossible to confirm this and the P-40 may well have come down in a dead-stick landing.
Despite said landing ripping the propeller clean off, as well as tearing the gearing unit from the
bowels of the engine, the emergency landing was successful, which was quite a feat considering
Copping had no choice but to land with the landing gear extended - and in the soft terrain
of the desert that carried a serious risk of his aircraft digging in and nosing over. But his P-40
did not flip over, and the unlucky airman had survived the impact…only to find himself in the
middle of the desert. Perhaps it would have been kinder if the landing had killed Copping outright,
as he was now alone and lost in the middle of the largest desert on Earth… RAF aircraft
of the day would usually carry very little in the way of rations, a small amount of food and
water that would suffice for perhaps a day or two at most, and he was far more than two days
of travel from the nearest civilisation. An investigation at the crash site revealed
that there had been a small makeshift camp built next to the aircraft, apparently made
using silk from the parachute. The aircrafts battery and radio were also discovered there,
hinting that the Copping had attempted to broadcast a call for help - it was tragically
discovered that the internal workings of the radio had been destroyed in the landing, which must have
been a demoralising realisation for copping after labouring in the searing heat for nothing.
At some point following this, Copping decided to leave his camp and make an attempt to
find salvation , and that is where the trail effectively ends to this day. A breakthrough
shortly after the discovery of the wreck came when a group of Italian historians discovered
a number of human bones, located only 5 km from the crash site, though after a brief
investigation it was decided that these did not belong to Copping. Coppings living
relatives have disputed with various officials, both in Egypt and the UK, about the remains,
as it appears they were claimed to have been far too old to have been those of the missing pilot,
though a DNA test was never conducted. It remains an ongoing case - with a number
of forensic pathologists interested in going personally to attempt DNA extraction. It’s
worth mentioning that discovered alongside the bones were a section of the parachute, a keyfob
and a buckle stamped 1939 - which is perhaps fairly compelling evidence that these bones
are in fact the remains of the British Pilot, and that they were wrongly dated. But there is more
to the mystery. Some believe that Copping may have been shot down, due to the fact that there is flak
damage scrattered around the fuselage - it’s more likely that this was previously attained
battle damage and was part of the reason that the aircraft was being ferried for repairs, though
it seems unusual that they would not have been patched over before flight, as would have been
standard. This adds another element of uncertainty to the mystery surrounding the aircraft,
one that has never been fully explained. After a total of 25,490 days under the Sahara
skies, Copping’s P-40 was transported to El Alamein and put into storage, eventually being
restored and put on display outside the war museum. The Royal Air Force Museum at
Hendon expressed interest in a trade deal but the negotiations with Egyptian officials eventually
fell through. ET574 unfortunately now sports a historically inaccurate camouflage scheme,
and is considered to have been rather poorly restored, though it has at least been saved from
scrapping and could one day perhaps be subject to a more historical, thorough restoration program.
Many people hope for this as The aircraft has special significance - not only because of the
story behind it, but also because it’s the sole surviving example of a Desert Air Force P-40
Kittyhawk. Just one of over 3,000 built. Had fate been kinder, had the radio not
been rendered inoperable upon landing, this could have ended as a very different story.
For now, we can only suppose that Copping died somewhere in the Sahara of exposure
after walking for some time, and he remains there to this day. The desert would have been around 35
degrees Celsius at that time of year, and being 300 kilometres away from the closest settlement
such a trek would have been virtually impossible with no chance of survival, which Copping couldn’t
have known at the time, or had he known there was nothing he have done about it anyway.
Today you can visit Dennis Coppings memorial site and pay your respects
to him - along with the many others who gave their lives in service in North Africa - at
the Alamein memorial in Egypt. As always, thank you all so much for watching,
and a big thank you of course to the patrons. Now this is the first video
I’ve recorded with my new microphone, so I hope the audio quality is alright. I’ll work
on improving things as we go. A big shoutout as well to the wing commander tier patrons,
our highest tier members, and a big welcome to Kaleb who is the newest member of this group.
I also hoped you enjoyed a slight change in video theme today, I plan to cover a few more ‘aviation
stories’ in the future as I think it makes a nice change of pace. But as always thank
you all so much for your continued support, and I’ll catch you all next time. Goodbye.