General Aircraft Hamilcar

The Hamilcar was the largest and heaviest glider built by the Western Allies, a wooden aircraft designed to deliver a light tank or other heavy vehicle directly onto the battlefield. Towed into the air by a four-engined Halifax, it could carry a seven-ton load — most famously the Tetrarch light tank, which could fire its gun through the opening nose doors as it rolled out. Hamilcars went into action at Normandy on D-Day and again at the Rhine crossing in 1945, giving airborne forces a heavy-lift capability unique among the gliders of the war.