HAMILCAR
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    • 298 Squadron >
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        • Buster Briggs
        • Wing Commander Robert Seymour. AFC.
    • 644 Squadron
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298 & 644 Squadrons. Royal Airforce

There is little doubt that the Hamilcar Glider was a unique aircraft; it could carry loads that which no other aircraft was  capable. However, as a weapon of war in its own right it was of little use.  The glider needed power, lots of it, to get into the air.  There were few aircraft in possession of the Royal Air Force that could comfortably pull a glider like the Hamilcar into the air and fly it many miles to its drop zone.  That chosen aircraft was the Halifax Bomber.  Stripped of all unnecessary equipment, the Hamilcar became the tug aircraft for the Hamilcar.

Initially, it was 298 Squadron who took up the challenge until it grew to such a size, 644 Squadron was formed out of 298. Both these RAF Squadrons became a team with the 'C' Squadron, the Glider Pilot Regiment until the end of the war.

The linked pages give some background to the two squadrons and the valuable role they played between 1943 and 1945.

Halifax & Hamilcar, love & marriage, horse & carriage...
298 Sqn
644 Sqn
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We will forge the regiment as a weapon of attack…Not only will we be trained as pilots, but in all we do…I shall be quite ruthless…only the best will be tolerated.
Lieutenant Colonel George Chatterton. October 1942