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| Date: | Thursday 11 January 1945 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | General Aircraft Hamilcar I |
| Owner/operator: | 1 HGSU RAF |
| Registration: | HH922 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Dolau, near New Radnor, Powys, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Tarrant Rushton. |
| Return. |
Forcelanded in bad weather nr New Radnor. 11/01/1945
Details:
The General Aircraft Ltd GAL.49 Hamilcar was a heavy-lift assault glider designed to carry up to 60 troops, a 7-ton Tetrarch IV light tank (or similar light vehicles) or cargo loads up to 17,500 lb.
Produced mainly from spruce and birch with a fabric-covered surfaces, it had a staggering all-up weight of 37,000 lbs. It was created in sections for easy transport and assembly, although due to its nett unladen weight of 19,500 lbs, it required large and powerful tow-aircraft to get it airborne.
Initially designed with a jettisonable undercarriage, this was replaced when it was discovered that it had a far shorter stopping distance when fitted with skids. Those aircraft employed in ferry operations did, however, have a fixed undercarriage to reduce damage.
Vehicles were loaded through the hinged nose of the aircraft, which could be quickly swung open after landing to allow rapid unloading. The undercarriage oleos were also collapsed so that a lot of vehicles could drive straight out without requiring any form of ramp.
The Hamilcar was crewed by two members of the Army Glider Pilot Regiment, or ex-RAF pilots seconded to the Army for that duty. It was towed by either the Short Stirling or the H.P. Halifax. These were four engine heavies modified for airborne towing operations.
Gliders were heavily involved during the D Day landings and Operation Market Garden. Come the turn of the year, training for the forthcoming ‘Op Varsity’ (Crossing of the Rhine) was now taking place.
At 09:45hrs HH922 took off behind a Halifax on one such training flight. Just over 2 hours later, the pair ran into cloud and mist, leaving the glider pilots zero visibility of the ‘mother’ aircraft. In a situation like this, the glider pilot now needs to look at the angle of the tow cable thus giving him a good idea of the position of the towing aircraft, too high or too low! To do this, the glider pilot released his seat harness to lean forward to see the cable indicator (a coloured tape around the cord of the cable). In the meantime, the glider was being towed into cloud at over 100 mph. Now totally lost. It was at this time the intercom went U/S. He then decided to cast off!
Taken from ‘Down in Wales 2’.
“Emerging through the haze, he was confronted, by steeply rising fields leading to a hilltop. It soon became obvious he would not be able to reach the top and would have to make an uphill landing. Coming over a farmhouse roof, the aircraft struck the rising ground, shearing off its undercarriage. A wing struck an Ash tree, and the glider slewed around, crashing into the next field.
Both crew members were slightly injured and taken to hospital. An Army guard arrived and made their base in the barn of Castle Cwmarron Farm. The RAF salvage team came later but there was little of importance to remove. The effort required to take away what would most likely become firewood, was not really worth the trouble and so the wreckage remained on the hillside.
Over the following months most of the wreckage disappeared, to be used to bloke gaps in hedges and hold up wilting barns. What remained gently rotted away in the bracken filled ditches until, fifty years later, only metal parts remain in the field. (book was printed 1996).
At the subsequent Court of Inquiry, the pilot of the towing aircraft was judged to be to blame for towing the glider into deteriorating weather, rather than altering course. It was also stated that the glider pilot should have had his harness secured at the time of landing, which would have reduced his injuries.
I visited Castell Cwmarron Farm and met Mr Alfred Brown who’s farther lived there at the time of the crash. He took me up to the site, showing me, the stump of the Ash tree struck by the Hamilcar in its attempt to land in the next field. Lying in a ditch were a number of massive stainless-steel plates with steel bolts going through them. These originally clamped together the large timbers used on the construction of the wings. They bore the inspection stamps of the Birmingham Railway Carriage Co; the timbers have long since rotted away.
On return to the farm, Mr Brown showed me a gleaming stainless-steel plate, about a yard long, which had been hanging in the house, while the wooden ladder, used in the Hamilcar to reach the flight deck, has been doing sterling service in the barn for the last fifty years. His father buried some of the larger pieces of the aircraft many years ago.”
Terence Hill supplied a grid refence along with the map number MR 136/149699. However, looking at one of the photographs of the location of the remaining wreckage, the views do not match up, also, the grid refence is nearly a mile along the road from the farm. However, a hill rises behind the farm with a series of fields leading up to the top. Unfortunately, I have not been able to visit this site to date, so one day?
Crew:
S/Sgt R. Tillings AGPR. 1st Pilot. Injured. Safe.
S/Sgt M. Wright AGPR. 2nd Pilot. Injured. Safe.
Buried:
N/A.
Wreckage:
Many pieces may remain.
Additional Information:
ONE LAST POINT!
(Applies to all the crash sites covered to date, and still to come.)
The remains of this aircraft are designated as a Controlled Site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. For further information on this Act and its administration with regard to aircraft, please contact the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre, RAF Innsworth, Gloucester, GL3 1RZ.
Description per image.
Sources:
1.Air Britain: RAF Aircraft HA100 - HZ999, published 1989
Down in Wales 2 Terence R Hill 1996.
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-Dec-2011 06:22 | Uli Elch | Added |
| 29-Dec-2011 07:03 | Uli Elch | Updated [Source, ] |
| 03-Jan-2025 12:15 | Davies 62 | Updated [Total occupants, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
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