Many US aircraft became iconic during their service in the Pacific War, but one plane
was often overshadowed and forgotten - the US Navy’s first monoplane fighter.
F2F “Brewster” Buffalo.
Although consistently touted as a heavy, cumbersome and obsolete warplane, especially compared
to its Japanese counterparts, the service record of the Buffalo is still respectable.
While its tenure in the US Navy was short, its dogged service in the air forces of other
nations like Finland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands made it a persistent and impactful
vehicle across multiple theatres in World War 2.
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The roar of the 950 hp Wright W 1820-22 Cyclone engine pushed the Brewster XF2A-1[1] prototype
plane off the runway as it took part in a US navy competition to find the replacement
for the outdated Grumman F3F biplane.
The Brewster was the US.
Navy’s first monoplane, featuring retractable landing gear and an arrestor hook[2] for aircraft
carrier takeoffs and landings.
This prototype consisted of many modern features like an all-metal frame[3], a stressed aluminum
construction[4], and Split flaps[5].
The XF2A-1 still lacked armour for the pilot and did not have self-sealing fuel tanks,
making them more susceptible to enemy bullets.
One of the reasons the F2A (Buffalo) outperformed its contemporaries was its impressive climb
rate of 2750 ft/min and a max speed of 277.5 mph.
In 1938, this top speed increased
to 304 mph at 16000ft.
In 1939, the F2A-1 was deployed into active duty, with the first unit to receive it being
Lt. Cdr.
Warren Harvey’s VF-3 on the USS Saratoga[6].
This first version would be the first to show the faults that plagued all versions of the
Buffalos, with weak landing gear mechanics and a powertrain that required excessive maintenance.
Only 11 of the original F2A-1 were kept by the navy, with the rest being sold to Finland.
The second shipment of 43 new F2A-2[7] had innovations installed but lacked crucial pilot
armour and self-sealing fuel tanks.
Still, the F2A-2 was considered a decent fighter, with flying ace Pappy Boyington[8] saying,
“they were pretty sweet little ships.
Not real fast, but the little aircraft could turn and roll in a phone booth.”[9].
The F2A-2 had a respectable speed of 324 mp/h at 16,500 ft, but with the added weight, its
climb rate dropped to 2500 ft/m.
Before long, navy officials started realizing the obsolete features of the Buffalo fighters
and the need for a more modern aircraft to deal with their more advanced counterparts
being produced in Germany and Japan.
The F2A-3 was the last variant of the Brewster Buffalo to be produced for the US Navy and
the only variant to see combat with US military forces.
108 of them were ordered by the US Navy in 1941, and this new model would come with self-sealing
fuel tanks and more pilot armour.
However, these improved features would create new problems, as they added further weight
to the plan, while frame restrictions meant that no larger engine could be installed to
compensate for this.
Buffalo’s final variant was despised by the pilots who flew it and the navy who purchased
it.
By 1941, the US Navy was phasing out its Buffalo fighters and replacing them with newer, sleeker
F4F wildcats.
Nevertheless, the Buffalos were still seeing significant action at this time, with 20 F2A-3s
assigned to the USS Saratoga, which was a part of the relief force being sent to Wake
Island in December 1941.
After the cancellation of that relief force, the Buffalos were diverted to Midway, where
they were given to the VMF-221[10] to bolster the defences in that theatre of the war with
Japan theatre.
All other Buffalo fighters would be sent to training schools on the mainland or sold to
Britain, Finland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with varying levels of success from each nation.
The only direct combat the Buffalos participated in in the US armed forces was at the battle
of Midway between June 4th - 7th, 1942.
On June 4th, radar stations at Midway picked up multiple enemy aircraft approaching the
island and scrambled its fighter forces.
In under ten minutes, two fighter squads had launched and assembled.
The first squad consisted of seven F2A-3s and five F4F-3s, while the second squad had
12 F2A-3s and one F4F-3.
They made contact with the enemy planes 30 miles out from Midway, and upon contact with
the enemy, would immediately find out how obsolete their planes were against the Japanese
Mitsubishi A6M Navy Type Zero Carrier Fighter.
The Buffalos could not match Zero’s speed or maneuverability and suffered huge casualties.
Of the two attacking squads, 13 F2A-3s were shot down alongside two F4F-3s.
One pilot who survived the encounter, Captain Philip R. White, later wrote, “It is my
belief that any commander who orders pilots out for combat in an F2A should consider the
pilot as lost before leaving the ground.”[11].
After Midway, all Buffalos were removed from frontline service and sent to training schools
around the mainland United States.
Despite the horrendous performance for the United States, the Brewster Buffalo found
success in service in the armed forces of other countries.
Finland was one such nation and could use the Buffalo to great success against the Soviet
Union.
By 1939, knowing the Russians were going to attack soon, the Finnish Government reached
out to the US.
to purchase combat-ready fighters as fast as possible.
The US.
sold their new Brewster F2As on October 17th, 1939.
The planes the Finns received came with a new Wright R-1820-G5 engine, giving them a
better power-to-weight ratio.
The designation for the new planes was B-239, which differed from the F2A-1 by being lighter
and more maneuverable than the US version because of the upgraded engine.
However, it still suffered from a lack of pilot protection and self-sealing fuel tanks.
Even with these drawbacks, the B-239s would see extensive use in Finland up to 1944, collecting
an outstanding service record in the process.
The first shipments of B-239s only became operational at the end of the Winter war with
Russia[12].
The Finns added an armor-plated backrest to further protect the pilot, new aiming sights,
and new .50 cal machine guns.
It became favored by Finnish pilots for its easy to use controls, long range, and good
maintenance properties[13].
Another contributing factor to the success of the B-239 was the weather in Finland, with
the frigid climes of northern Europe helping to cool an engine that was prone to overheating[14].
The Finnish air force B-239 would have an outstanding Kill-to-Death ratio of 26-to-1.
While only losing 15 B-239s, Finnish pilots would shoot down 477 Soviet warplanes, using
a four plane tactic called “parvi” which the Soviets were never able to counter throughout
the war.
This tactic consisted of two planes flying at a lower altitude and two planes flying
at a higher one.
When enemies engaged the lower flying planes, the two higher flying planes would swoop down
and pick off the attackers.
The most successful pilot who flew a B-239 was LT.
Hans Wind, with 39 kills.
The final combat victory achieved by a B-239 occured on the 17th of June, 1944, over the
Karelian Isthmus.
By the end of the war, only eight B-239 were still being used, with the last five being
retired by 1948.
Finland would not be the only other nation to make use of the Buffalo.
By 1940, the United Kingdom had a shortage of aircraft for the RAF.[15] To fix this,
they created the British Purchasing Commission,[16] which acquired 32 B-339[17] that were originally
intended for Belgium, but rediverted to Britain after the fall of France.
RAF personnel who saw the B-339 were unimpressed by the plane’s average climb rate, lack
of pilot armor protection, engine that was prone to overheat, and multiple maintenance
issues.
However, other British servicemen were impressed with its handling, cockpit space, and visibility.
It was deemed unfit for the European theater, but the RAF would fly them in theatres of
war further aboard, such as in southeast Asia.
Soon, the RAF received a new order of 170 B-339Es: an inferior version of the original
B-339, equipped with the less efficient Wright R-1820-G-105 Cyclone engine.
The B-339E had the naval hook removed along with the life raft compartment but added in
many features to compensate for this, including the Mk III reflector gun sight, a free rotating
fixed tail wheel[18], engine shutters, more pilot armor plating, and armor plating.
These added features would weigh in at a total of 900 lbs.
The added weight from these features would decrease this variant of the plane’s top
speed of 323 mph (520 km/h) to 313 (504 km/h), which only made the Brewster Buffalo increasingly
obsolete.
Only a few B-339E planes in the RAF would remove the armour plating, gun camera, armoured
windshields, and other hindering equipment.
These trimmed-down planes would perform better than their counterparts, but it soon became
clear to the RAF that Buffalo was becoming more obsolete with each new enemy plane they
encountered.
During the Malayan campaign[19], the B-339E performed decently against the equally outdated
Nakajima Ki-27.
However, their success against this plane could only be achieved if they could be given
the time needed to gain maximum altitude.
This balance of air power would quickly shift as more Japanese fighters in the newer Nakajima
Ki-43 or “Oscar”[20] would outmatch the B-339E.
The tropical weather of Mayala often caused the B-339E engine to overheat, which would
spray oil over the windshields, forcing the pilots to return to base.
Of the 140 B-339E sent to SouthEast Asia, 60 would be shot down in combat, 40 were destroyed
on the ground, 20 crashed due to accidents, and only 20 would reach India or the East
Dutch Indies, with the last one leaving Singapore on February 10th, 1942.
It is unclear how many Japanese planes were shot down by Buffalos during this campaign,
with numbers ranging from 20 to 80.
These numbers give the impression that Buffalo had an equal kill-to-loss ratio, but most
of the B-339E kills were against slow-moving bombers.
The last of the B-339E would be phased out for more modern fighters after the fall of
Mayala.
During the Japanese invasion of Burma, the 67th Squadron of the RAF was equipped with
thirty Buffalos, joined by the Curtiss P-40s of the American Flying Tigers volunteer group.
Members of the flying tigers were initially impressed with the Buffalo and urged their
commander, General Claire Chennault, to trade a squadron of P-40S for them.
In response, Chennault arranged a mock dogfight between the fighters, with 1st Lt Erik Shilling
flying a P-40 and Squadron Leader Jack Brandt flying a Buffalo.
This mock dogfight took place over the training base in Toungoo and resulted in the P-40 proving
to be the superior fighter.
Shilling would meet Brandt fifty years later, and the RAF pilot told him, “how I wish
I could have swapped my aircraft for yours.”
Nonetheless, the Buffalos and P-40’s carried out air defenses over Rangoon and Mingaladon.
Because of reports from the Malayan campaign, the Buffalo pilots would employ different
tactics, such as coming in from above and diving away before the enemy pilot could get
onto them.
The Buffalos would continue to be used until only six remained and were withdrawn to Calcutta,
whereupon, on March 11th, 1942, they were replaced with Hurricanes.
Another nation to use the Buffalo was the Netherlands in the colonies in the East Indies
when the Military Air Service of the Royal Netherlands East Indian Army ordered 144 Brewster
B-339C and B-339D models.
At the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Dutch East Indies only had 71 buffalos delivered,
of which only a few were in service.
A small number served in Singapore but were then withdrawn for the defence of Borneo and
Java.
The Dutch found they could engage the Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 “Oscars” successfully,
but the Oscars and Zero fighters were out-climbing them.
The Dutch faced superior numbers in the air usually outnumbered two to three.
The most significant battle the Dutch Buffalos would face was above Semplak on February 19th,
1942, when eight of them intercepted a formation of 35 Japanese bombers being escorted by 20
Zeros.
The Hollanders were able to destroy eleven Japanese aircraft while losing only four of
their own.
By March 7th, 1942, Captain Jacob van Helsdingen led what would be his final sortie when a
Zero shot him down.
This made him and Lt. August Deibel the most successful Dutch pilots on the Buffalos, with
three victories each.
In total, 17 Dutch pilots were killed, 30 of their aircraft were shot down, and the
Netherlands claimed to have destroyed 55 Japanese aircraft in the Pacific.
The last nation to use the Buffalo was Australia, which received 17 B339’S from the Dutch
East Indies after their surrender on March 8th, 1942.
The Australians mainly used planes for air defence, photo-reconnaissance, and gunnery
training.
Between August 1942 and November 1943, the Buffalos constituted the air defense force
for Perth Westen Australia while assigned to the 25th and 85th squadron at RAAF Pearce
and Guilford.
While the F2A Brewster Buffalo undeniably was inferior to its sister aircraft like the
F4F Wildcat, it still had a significant role in the Pacific War and other theatres.
The Finnish air force produced 36 Buffalos aces, with the top three being Captain Hans
Wind with 39 victories, WO Eino Ilamri Juutilainen with 34 and Captain Jorma Karhunen with 25.5.
Royal New Zealand air force officer Geoffrey Fisken had six air victories in a buffalo,
RAAF Doug Vanderfield had five individual kills, and RAAF Alf Clare and Maurice Holder
had five victories each.
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