Family of Linslade Second World War hero pay tribute to his bravery during D-Day invasion

Charlie Main commanded a 'Pilotage Party' who risked their lives to gather information in preparation for the landings in 1944.

But, after surviving the initial assault, Charlie was killed along with over 30 men when their HQ Landing Craft 185 was hit by a mine on June 25.

Charlie’s great step nephew, Chris Keen, who also attended a memorial service at Linslade War Memorial on Thursday, June 6, said: “My cousins and I visited Hayling Island to pay remembrance tributes to our lost family member, war hero Caruth Main. DSM. RN.

“Charlie was a top secret Combined Operations (COPP9) Commando during the Second World War. He and his comrades were stationed at HQ on a fortified Hayling Island and operated around the world on top secret operations.

“We attended a special remembrance dinner hosted by General the Lord Richards of Herstmonceux GCB CBE DSO DL. who was a Chief of the Defence Staff (appointed 2009). The General informed us, ‘without the work of the COPP personnel [ie Caruth Main and his unit], D-Day could never have happened’.

“Needless to say we were absolutely stunned at General Richard’s revelation. The significance of the wartime work that our family member undertook is now only now being fully understood.”

A plaque at the official COPP land memorial on Hayling Island states: “The operational history of Combined Operations Pilotage Parties is one of the great, little-known secrets of the Second World War.

"Comprising of less than 200 personnel, in under three years from January 1943 until the war's end in August 1945, the brave men of COPP won over 90 medals and commendations.

“Their missions to secretly recce enemy-held invasion beaches worldwide, is arguably the most significant international story in the modern history of the Borough of Havant, one of which the people can be proud.”

Charlie was born in Wiltshire with twin sister, Jess, in 1912, but grew up in a Banardo’s children’s home and later adopted by Chris’s great grandparents Edmund and Annie Rogers.

Aspiring to a career in the navy, Charlie was a training ship boy in Exmouth, and entered the Boys Training Est in Gosport at the age of 15, where he met his best friend, William 'Bill' Rogers, from Linslade – "an event that was to change his fortune" as he became an adopted member of Bill's family.

Charlie was one of the first incumbent into the secret COPP regiment, which once came under the direct command of Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma. The existence of COPP was only acknowledged and revealed in the 1970s.

On the morning of June 5, 1944, Charlie left for Normandy aboard Head Quarters Landing Craft HMLCH 185, ahead of the assault, to pilot in the vast amounts of sea traffic, the personnel and the equipment for the actual invasion. HMLCH 185 was tasked with “guiding in" (pioleting) troops to Sword and Gold Beaches to kick off D-Day. (Operation Overlord).

Sadly 21 days in and still operating in the Normandy region, HMLCH 185 triggered an acoustic mine, killing Charlie and 35 others on the vessel. However, some of his fellow COPP unit members who were ashore at the time, survived.

Charlie earned his Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) during Operation Husky, the allied invasion of Sicily, with the role of his unit to carry out covert reconnaissance of enemy-held beaches.

His name is inscribed on the Linslade War Memorial, which ironically when at its original location – was in the shadows of Charlie's former home in Leighton Road.