An elite group of men who paved the way for success on D-Day are honoured with an imposing monument on Hayling Island in Hampshire. Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, and Major General Ed Davis, Commandant General Royal Marines and Commander Amphibious Forces, led tributes to veterans of the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP), who carried out top-secret missions in the run-up to the Normandy invasion, after the recent unveiling of a granite monument by Countess Mountbatten of Burma.