The World War II Plane America Hated but Finland Loved | Brewster F2A Buffalo | History in the Dark

The Brewster F2A Buffalo is a plane of mixed reception. While often cited as one of the worst planes of World War II, this is debatable at best. They were outclassed almost immediately, it's true, but they had their uses and Brewster's internal management issues didn't help their case. But when they were exported to Finland, their pilots fell in love with the planes and even nicknamed them "Sky Pearls." What was it about Finland that made them have success with this perplexing aircraft?

0:00 - Characteristics
1:45 - Development
8:16 - Underrated Service
13:50 - Legacy

"The Brewster F2A Buffallo is an American fighter aircraft which saw service early in World War II. Designed and built by the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, it was one of the first U.S. monoplanes with an arrestor hook and other modifications for aircraft carriers. The Buffalo won a competition against the Grumman F4F Wildcat in 1939 to become the U.S. Navy's first monoplane fighter aircraft. Although superior to the Grumman F3F biplane it replaced, and the early F4Fs, the Buffalo was largely obsolete when the United States entered the war, especially when compared to the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero."

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[namelesscurmudgeon]

The problem with the Buffalo was that, after it was designed, the US Navy added all sorts of heavy equipment.
An Australian squadron in Malaya and the Fins stripped out everything non-essential to get the Buffalo’s weight down, which transformed the aircraft.
The Australian pilots reported that the lightened Buffalo was competitive against Japanese aircraft.
One of the things that they replaced was the .50 Brownings with .303 Brownings. As well as being heavy, the recoil from .50 Brownings broke the mountings and a tropical coating on the .50 ammunition sprayed the windscreen with a blinding oily residue when the guns were fired.

[AllTradesGeorge]

Several of the "bad" airplanes of WWII were actually pretty decent planes, they were just used in ways that they weren't really designed for, or, as in the case of the Buffalo, they weren't given accurate design demands, so the finished design couldn't keep up with the practical demands that heaped extra weight on the airframe or the planes were being asked to perform at altitudes or in roles they hadn't been built for.

[ronalddevine]

The Finns are a very resilient people. So glad to have them in NATO.

[genekelly]

Yes, the Buffalo was obsolete by 1940. But so was the Fokker DXXI...but Finnish pilots had good success with both planes. The secret that pilots who altered their tactics to take advantage of these aircrafts advantages.

[yakhooves]

You get extra credit for using my favorite bit of Beethoven. The 7th Symphony in its entirety is haunting, but Opus 92 is on another level.

This is a great video. Extremely informative! I only ever thought of the Buffalo as a plane we’d rather forget, but I had no idea it had been exported, or that Finland loved it!

[oldgysgt]

The Finnish success with their Brewsters speaks volumes about the skill of the Finnish pilots and the poor quality of the Red pilots sent to that area of operation. To gain such a high kill ratio in such a marginal fighter is truly a great accomplishment.

[elfthreefiveseven]

Designed and built at a time when a lot of aircraft designs would go from cutting edge to obsolete in a super short amount of time. Also the famous aircraft from World War 2 had the designs updated to help maintain effective performance in combat operations. You can compare nearly every late war aircraft with the early versions on see a large difference.

[carloberetta]

Flying the Finnish Buffalo in flight simulators it’s a sweet ride. It’s almost like the airplane version of a Mazda Miata, unfortunately it’s opposition was often the super car equivalents of the sky. Many early war planes found themselves in this position 😢

[captainsalty]

The first shoot down of a Japanese aircraft by a U.S. Marine took place near Midway in March of 1942. Captain James L. Neefus of VMF223 and two other Brewsters shot down a Japanese Emily flying boat. Captain Neefus got in two passes and was credited with the shoot down.

[Mr.MurdochTimothySchmidt]

I have seen that buffalo that was pulled of a lake in the Finnish aviation museum.

[awommack]

First, love that you covered the Buffalo! Second, since you did the Buffalo, are you gonna go a video on the Wildcat including the late war FM2s?

[douglasstrother]

Fighter development from 1935 to 1945: biplanes to jets.
Quite a revolutionary time.

[AbelMcTalisker]

There is also an issue with Brewster using reconditioned rather than new engines in many of the late-production aircraft. A lot of the F2A3s sent to the Pacific were not only heavier but some of them had engines that were not delivering the power they were rated for and the general build quality was just "bad". The Finns got in the main early production airframes that were just better built. The "Buffalo" (only called that by the RAF) was the best product from a small aviation company that just wasn`t able to meet the demands of the US Navy and other countries as the world headed into war. They adopted some very suspect practices to meet production needs and eventually failed as a result.

[MrCateagle]

Grumman's XF4F-1 was an extension of their FF/F2F/F3F series of designs. The redesigned XF4F-2 was an all metal monoplane that gave us the Wildcat (though it took until the F4F-4 to get folding wings).

[towgod]

Interesting take on the aircraft, the history of the plane, AND the company, speak for itself.

[jamesdalton]

Between 3:55 and 4:54, the images shown are of a P-36 Mohawk, not a Brewster Buffalo. The Buffalo has an undercarriage that retracts into the fuselage, while the Mohawk had an undercarriage that folds rearward into the wings. The images clearly show the latter type. (Sorry for nit-picking; it must be hard to find good footage of the Buffalo.)

[marktercsak]

A number of years ago now on the History Channel a Marine Corps Aviator loved the Brewster Buffalo, he stated for example the Buffalo had electrical landing gear you hit either toggle switch, the gear went up and when landing hit the switch it lowered the landing gear, and had a back up manual crank for the gear
The wildcat was strictly manual operated gear, and there were a number of other options, as he said all planes have their pluses and minuses. You take it into account and what the enemy planes can do then you have an advantage and you can turn your minuses into an advantage.

[poowg]

It had one of the highest kill rates in the war flying for Finland. The Fins got rid of all the armor and self sealing tanks and were able to get the best performance out of it.

[craigpennington]

I like them. Like the I-16s/ short fat stubby fighters that surprised everyone. The Buffalo was another & the Fins exploited its characteristics to the limits with great success. Great info from this video. Thanks for posting. Too bad that there isn't more in flying condition.

[Treblaine]

That many .50 cal machine guns were also way more firepower when of the time period it was still mostly just 7-8mm machine guns and 20mm cannons were still rare.