Brewster F2A Buffalo and Export Variants

Naval Fighters #104

by Richard Dann

This comprehensive monograph covers the entire history of Brewster's much maligned Buffalo fighter aircraft. The book starts out with the background of the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation and the events that led to the selection of the F2A as the Navy's first monoplane fighter. Following this, each variant of the aircraft is covered in detail including all three major variants purchased by the US. Navy as well as the versions purchased by Belgium, Finland, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. Indivdual squadron histories are also included as they relate to the F2A. Many interviews are included with pilots who flew the Buffalo, some with glowing comments on its performance, while others cast a less than stellar light on the Brewster. It is up to the reader to draw his own conclusions as to where the F2A sits in the history of modern aerial warfare. It is interesting to note that the Brewster 239, as used by the Finnish Air Force during the 1939-1945 period achieved the highest kill ratio of any fighter plane of the war with an impressive 26-1 score. Finland produced many Aces with the Buffalo, including the all-time high scoring Buffalo Ace, Hans Wind with 39 aerial kills, and followed closely by Ilmari Juutilainen with 34. The book is lavishly illustrated with over 300 photos, many of which have never been published. This is the ultimate history of the Brewster Buffalo.

176 pages, Paperback

Published July 26, 2017

About the author

Richard Dann is a lifelong aviation enthusiast. His earliest recollections of aviation were at the local airport in Escanaba, Michigan when North Central Airlines operated Convair 580s. He went on to attend college at Western Michigan University and graduated with a degree in Aviation Management in 1984.

Rich attended the Navy’s Aviation Officer Candidate School in 1985 and was commissioned as an Ensign in September of that year. He went on to fly the Sikorsky SH-60B with HSL-43 at NAS North Island from 1987 to 1991. Rich flew 50 missions during Operation DESERT STORM while attached to USS MOBILE BAY (CG-53). He left active duty in 1991 to pursue civilian interests, remaining in the Navy Reserve. In 2009, Rich was mobilized and was Executive Director of the Centennial of Naval Aviation. During his active duty period, Rich spearheaded the Heritage Paint Project, an effort that saw 29 U.S. Navy aircraft painted in heritage color schemes. He concluded his Navy career in 2015 at the rank of Captain after 30 years of service.

For the last 20 years, Rich has been employed as a test engineer with a large aerospace company in the Midwest. He is currently working as a Test Program Manager for advanced weapon systems. He has been authoring books since 1992 and has eleven titles to his credit. Rich is also an illustrator and aviation artist, and often does layouts and artwork for his books.

Reviews

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very complete history of the Brewster Buffalo, a somewhat notorious aircraft. When it entered service with the US Navy, the F2A was by all accounts a modern fighter, the service’s first monoplane carrier fighter with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit, and possessed delightful handling characteristics. But the little aircraft had almost no development potential and suffered badly when combat experience revealed the need for more fuel, guns, armour plate, and equipment. Besides, the Buffalo’s reputation probably suffered a lot from the riotously bad management of Brewster, one of the few arms manufacturers ever to be closed down in the middle of a major war! But that is a topic that this book avoids.

This is a very sympathetic review of the type’s history. It is generous and generally gives a voice to the the pilots who had a more complementary view of the type, whilst also citing some detractors. It also takes the Finnish claims at face value, which is very probably unwise. Yet researching kill-to-loss claims in detail is difficult and generally leads to great acrimony. (I don’t know whether there has been a detailed of the Continuation War since the dissolution of the USSR.)

The biggest flaw of this work is that although the book is richly illustrated and well produced, I get the impression that either the printing technology or the illustration preparation process allowed for a too limited grayscale range. Hence pictures are often either very grey with little contrast, or have overexposed white regions, or are have regions that are too dark to see any detail. It is a bit frustrating, especially when figure captions refer to details that are impossible to see. It is variable, pictures taken indoors seem to have survived the process better.

The text is typeset in a somewhat ugly font, and has occasional problems with punctuation, but is very readable.

Overall, a useful and interesting history of an aircraft that has often been ridiculed, rather unfairly, as a complete failure.