OK, you guys have somewhat comvinced me that it was only the worst American fighter ... not the worst fighter. Still, I am struggling to identify any that were, in fact, worse. Nope, can't think of a contemporary that was worse ... but maybe it will surface. Sort of like the PZL Zubr of fighters. Sorry, I am struggling with anything worse ... and not finding any answers ...
I believe the F2A-3 was one of the two worst american fighter used in WW2. The other contender? The Sevrsky P-35. Although in their infancy both were somewhat revolutionary aircraft for their time. I personally believe the F2A-1 to be historically more important as the first modern naval fighter.
As to naval aircraft of other nations that fought in WW2:
Well for starters, the Skua as a fighter. IUC it was procured to provide a carrier's aerial defense (CAP) while also fulfilling an offensive role (fairly effectively) as a dive bomber. I'd also include the A5M as inferior to the F2A-3.
I believe in general, there are many fighters that, at a given moment in time, were successfully employed but time passed them by. The I-16 comes to mind. The Gloster Gladiator, Cr-42 and so on. Few of these enjoyed as celebrated a moment in time as did the B-239/F2A-1. I can only repeat my call to distinguish among the types. I personally don't regard the F2A-1 or B-239 as Buffalos. The name Buffalo wasn't given to them. It was assigned to a very inferior mark that enjoyed virtually no success whatsoever beyond a few individual a2a victories. It was then popularly broadened to include all of the marks. It's easy to ascribe success of the B-239 to the superb pilots of LeLv 24, but it also had some limited success when used by a less celebrated group LvLe-26 who were able to shoot down advanced types including an La-5, a Lend Lease Tomahawk, and a P-39 late in the war.
Enemy types claimed by the Finn B-239 included 15 Spitfires, about 60 Hurricanes, about 50+ Mig-3, 45+ Lagg-3, about 20 La-5, and 5 Tomahawks and 1 P-39.
These are listed at the Buffalo's website:
http://www.warbirdforum.com/scores.htm
So, after this information, are we really talking about the same aircraft when folks talk generically about the
Buffalo!