From the story.....he died in the desert since he never got home.
“Once he had crashed there nobody was going to come and get him,” Saunders said. “It is more likely he tried to walk out of the desert but ended up walking to his death. It is too hideous to contemplate.”
So ended Flight Sgt Copping’s service to the Crown. He has no surviving relatives.
Next time any of us think we got problems.....think of Sgt Copping’s last few days in earth. May God have rested his soul.
Plus to weigh in on some comments made farther down.....the P40 was a fine plane for its time. Most effective at low altitude.....since it lacked a supercharger.....it suffered when competing above 10,000 feet with it’s rivals at the time the Zero and the ME-109.
The P-40 could take incredible damage and still return to base PLUS...most US models had six 50 caliber Brownings that made it a very heavily armed puppy indeed.
Looks like this Brit model had at least 2 50’s on it as that is the caliber catridge being handled in one photo.
That was probably a P-40D (Kittyhawk Mk I) or P-40E (Kittyhawk Mk IA). The Mk I had two .50-caliber M2 Brownings in each wing, the Mk IA had three. The earliest P-40s had two .50s in the nose above the engine (firing through the prop) and four .303s in the wings, but that crashed plane has the wrong cowling for that configuration. It’s probably a Mk IA since more of those were made and they were in wide service in North Africa in mid-1942.
}:-)4
What you said.
Thanks for the Rest of the Story.