In the company of an Egyptian military driver-translator-minder-handler, I traveled all over the place: Cairo, Alexandria, El Alamein, Suez and more.

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At the beginning of that decade, during World War II, he was taken prisoner during the battle of El Alamein, and held for four years by the British.

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Copping, part of the RAF's Egyptian 260 Squadron, was trying to get the American-built plane back in fighting condition in the run-up to what would prove to be the pivotal Battle of El Alamein.

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