Brewster Buffalo Combat Engagement

[lnewman838]

A number of years ago I made the acquaintance of an Australian gentleman who claimed that he had been the pilot of a Brewster Buffalo shot down over Colombo (Ceylon) Harbor by a Japanese fighter in the early stages of the war. I failed to ask if he was flying for the RAF or RAAF at the time but the few times I've been able to research the topic, I've never come across any references to air combat in that specific theater (and that far south) although I know there were some Buffalo squadrons in Malaya and Singapore at the outbreak of hostilities in 1941. Can someone who is familiar with that part of the war shed any light on the veracity of my friends claim?

 

[buffnut453]

There were no Buffalos stationed anywhere near Ceylon.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,
I believe that there was at least one Squadron of Buffalos stationed in Burma during the early stages of the war, and there have been some stories that a few of them may have been evacuated to India after the fall of Burma, but I haven't been able to find anything more about those planes.

Additionally, it is known that several Buffalos were either evacuated (or in some cases possibly diverted) to Australia after the fall of Malaya/Singapore and The Dutch East Indies and many of those planes ended up serving in mainland Australian service for a bit and at least one is known to have been seen in USAAF livery.

And finally, some Buffalos from an earlier Belgian order taken over by the UK were known to have served a a number of FAA squadrons, in small numbers (such as on Crete in the Mediterranean)

Don't know if that helps any.

Pat