Brewster Buffalo - what is the verdict? (1 Viewer)

[FulmenTheFinn]

It was not in my plans to learn Finnish, so I would be grateful for the translation.

Your browser should have a feature that allows you to translate the page. I've read that page in both Finnish and English and the translation at least on Google Chrome is OK. It's mainly about the kill claims of Finnish pilots.

If we are talking about the Porsö island, it is located 20+ kilometers from Hanko Peninsula (or the boundaries of the area leased by the Soviets), if not, please provide the coordinates. For me all these mentions of shelling are absolutely equivalent to Soviet claims of shelling from the Finnish side in the area of Mainila in November, 1939 ("Shelling of Mainila"). It seems that Finnish officials simply needed something to counter the Soviet side's uncomfortable questions about neutrality.

You're looking at the wrong Porsö. This one is at 59°53'49.2"N 22°53'55.3"E, just northwest of Hanko. To make matters more confusing, there's at least two Storholmens very close to each other as well, but I assume the larger one at 59°54'39.8"N 22°57'52.9"E is the one in question.


Click to enlarge.


An image with nearby Finnish defensive fortifications on the mainland (the so-called Harparskog Line) and on the nearby islands outlined.

I've now been investigating this matter with a Russian contact of mine. Apparently there are more of those in Russia who think this bombing never happened (including this very vulgar, Solovyov-from-Rossiya 1-type poster here). My contact also uncovered an article by Geust in Russian, according to which the SB unit in question was 57 BAP of the VVS KBF (Saint-Petersburg and Northern European countries: Materials of the thirteenth annual scientific conference (5–7 of April 2011), p. 259). Perhaps you can dig more with this information? It has very much piqued my interest.

But at this point I suggest we move this conversation into DMs as it is OT, so please respond there.

Okay guys. I want to know the truth of this story. I've heard three Finnish service personnel were to be awarded Iron Crosses by their Aryan co-belligerents. Those 3 Finns were Jewish and refused them. Was this a deliberate act of "trolling" and/or did it actually happen?

It's true, and no, it was not trolling. Incidentally, when the German 163rd Infantry Division was on the Svir Front they had a field synagogue next to their sector, built by some of the Finnish Jewish soldiers serving in the units there, which to my knowledge was just fine by the 163rd. If this area of history interests you, I can recommend this video:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emgOzd0ng1A&ab_channel=NationalMuseumofAmericanJewishMilitaryHistory

But to try to get back on-topic, I've recently been looking at Finnish aerial victory claims. Officially for the Brewster in Finnish service there's 480 of them, but I have a list with some 494-495 entries (once I've finished sorting out my lists I'll have an exact number). Most or all of this inflation up from 480 comes from aircraft that originally weren't marked as confirmed kills, but which have since been confirmed destroyed with information obtained from the Russian archives. At any rate, the archives look to back up only 155, or about 1/3, of these, including one German He 111 shot down by accident at night in May 1943. Even if this isn't the final tally, it's pretty clear there's air in the Finnish kill claims. Far less than those of Soviet pilots, to be sure, but air nonetheless*. If we assume that 155 would be the final tally, then with 16 Brewsters shot down by the VVS and another 5 destroyed on the ground for a total of 21 by enemy aerial action, then the KLR for the Brewster Model 239 would be 7:1 or 10:1, depending on if you count the 5 destroyed on the ground in air raids or not. Incidentally, 2 were shot down by Soviet AA, 4 by German AA, 12 were lost in accidents and the remaining 5 were scrapped. One or two ended up as playthings for children in public parks before they too were scrapped likely some time in the '50s or '60s.


BW-387 in Saukonpuisto Park, Tampere, 1952.

*According to varying sources perhaps 1/2-1/3 of Finnish aerial victory claims are true, while I've read that for the Soviets it's more like 1/16. I know for a fact that in the Winter War it was 1/12 for the VVS (438 claimed vs. 38 actual), and that's not even including the aircraft the VVS claimed to have destroyed in air raids, which is likely in the dozens, or more (in reality they destroyed one, more specifically a de Havilland D.H.60 X Moth on Immola airfield on 1 December 1939).

Speaking of kill claims, and more specifically about the Buffalo kill claims against the Japanese that came up: How verifiable ultimately are these? From what I understand the records of the IJA and IJN air forces were pretty badly destroyed in WW2, or is this not so?

EDIT, 5 October 2025: Regarding the VVS bombings of Finnish ships on 22 June 1941 (for those who haven't followed page 10 of the thread: not to be confused with the large-scale summer bombing campaign the VVS began against Finland on 25 June 1941):

I didn't want to detract the thread further, so I'm editing this post I wrote over three weeks ago. I investigated the matter further with the great help of a Russian contact of mine. He discovered that the Russian author specialising in the history of the VVS KBF that bf109xxl mentioned previously, Miroslav Morozov, has confirmed that the VVS did indeed bomb Finnish ships c. 6:05 am GMT+2 (Finnish time, no DST (GMT+3) yet back then). Seven SBs, evidently from the VVS KBF's 73 SBAP based at Pärnu airfield, Estonia (annexed by the USSR in the summer of 1940), took off over three hours after a pair of MBR-2 flying boats belonging to the VVS KBF's 44 OMRAE spotted a German minelayer flotilla laying the minefield Apolda at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland in the early hours of 22 June 1941. Incidentally the MBR-2s engaged the Germans and the Germans fired back. This was c. 2:30 am and Barbarossa would not begin until 3:00 am (all times in GMT+2), meaning the first shots of the Eastern Front of WW2 were fired, at least in the Baltic Sea, there and then.

At any rate, the KBF ordered an airstrike on this flotilla, but by the time the SBs reached the spot the Germans were long gone. Instead the SBs spotted the Finnish ships to the north carrying out the remilitarisation of the Åland Islands, apparently took them for the German flotilla and engaged them. They flew right at them at a high altitude and the Finns opened defensive fire against them, after which they dropped their bombs at the ships but missed. The bombs fell into the sea and onto a tiny empty island or islet next to Husö Island, where the impact of the bombs caused some small fires to break out.

Interestingly, because of time delays and other factors, this attack erroneously went down in Finnish historiography as a series of Soviet air attacks in the area occurring at different times and slightly different locations between 6-7 am, when in fact there had only been one Soviet air attack (see also: https://www.aromaat.net/Navygallery/Background/Wartime/Kilpapurjehdus.htm), though that's not what was at issue here. The issue here was whether the Soviet Air Force had attacked the Finns at all in the morning of 22 June 1941, and they definitely did. However it was interesting investigating this and getting clarity on the course of events that morning, so I thank bf109xxl for piquing my interest into investigating this further. That is all.

 

[bf109xxl]

Your browser should have a feature that allows you to translate the page. I've read that page in both Finnish and English and the translation at least on Google Chrome is OK. It's mainly about the kill claims of Finnish pilots.

An automatic translator is good if you already know how to translate. In all other cases, even the best translators produce a result that takes effort and time to understand. I don't have the free time for that.

You're looking at the wrong Porsö. This one is at 59°53'49.2"N 22°53'55.3"E, just northwest of Hanko. To make matters more confusing, there's at least two Storholmens very close to each other as well, but I assume the larger one at 59°54'39.8"N 22°57'52.9"E is the one in question.

View attachment 846639
Click to enlarge.

View attachment 846640
An image with nearby Finnish defensive fortifications on the mainland (the so-called Harparskog Line) and on the nearby islands outlined.

And wtf did the Soviets need to shell these godforsaken fortifications where no operations were planned? Just because they felt some kind of dislike for the Finnish military? Before that, all orders categorically forbade to open fire before the enemy crossed the border. And why did the Soviet leadership need it, if it was still trying to clarify the issue of neutrality for at least two days?

I've now been investigating this matter with a Russian contact of mine. Apparently there are more of those in Russia who think this bombing never happened (including this very vulgar, Solovyov-from-Rossiya 1-type poster here). My contact also uncovered an article by Geust in Russian, according to which the SB unit in question was 57 BAP of the VVS KBF (Saint-Petersburg and Northern European countries: Materials of the thirteenth annual scientific conference (5–7 of April 2011), p. 259). Perhaps you can dig more with this information? It has very much piqued my interest.

Putting aside the angry and boorish tone of the article, it asks a legitimate question: where are the supporting documents? The answer "the Soviets shredded all the documents" is not suitable - the Soviets kept much more dangerous documents for them. The sortie of several airplanes is always accompanied by the filling of many documents, orders remain, entries are made in the combat log, etc. A "trace" is formed, which under Soviet bureaucracy was not so easy to "clean up". The sanction to bomb Finnish territory could only be given by the highest Soviet leadership - not even the fleet commander! The question arises: how did the Soviets know about the ships and the landing? To send bombers to nowhere without intelligence is unthinkable, to plan and carry out such an operation in three or four hours, even with one squadron, is absolutely unrealistic for the Soviets at that time. Even a simple transfer of information between headquarters could take hours! I highly doubt that Geust's article answers this question. I do not believe that the Soviets always acted logically, or rather I believe that they very often acted illogically, but here is an absolute idiocy that I personally cannot imagine. According to Miroslav Morozov (the most authoritative expert on Soviet naval aviation, known for his critical views on its actions), the first sorties of the 57th BAP and 1st MTAP took place on June 24.
I have no contacts in Russia and I prefer not to read articles written in such a boorish tone and not to discuss with such authors who try to justify any Soviet actions by any means. But this does not mean that they cannot ask a legitimate question.

But at this point I suggest we move this conversation into DMs as it is OT, so please respond there.

It seems to me that despite the OT the discussion could be interesting for the audience.

 

[SaparotRob]

The Winter War and the Continuation War are pretty much Terra Incognita to me.

 

[buffnut453]

Speaking of kill claims, and more specifically about the Buffalo kill claims against the Japanese that came up: How verifiable ultimately are these? From what I understand the records of the IJA and IJN air forces were pretty badly destroyed in WW2, or is this not so?

It's obviously impossible to verify all the claims. As noted, there absolutely was overclaiming by both sides. However, a couple of well-documented confirmed kills that are quite telling.

There's the well-known image in the book Bloody Shambles of the tail of a 64th Sentai Ki43 that was downed over Malaya.

Then there's this tail of a Ki-46 shot down by Charlie Kronk and Bert Wipiti of 243 Sqn. The Dinahs were used for high speed and (relatively) high altitude reconnaissance. This is a significant kill, given the Buffalo's poor climb rate and tendency to wallow at higher altitudes:

Redirect Notice

While solid evidence of victories is scant due to multiple reasons (terrain, lost records etc), these couple of examples indicate that the Buffalo could succeed against the best the Japanese had in 1941-42.

 

[buffnut453]

It seems to me that despite the OT the discussion could be interesting for the audience.

It's absolutely a fascinating subject, and one not often discussed. However, I'd recommend starting a new thread so we don't get it all tangled up with Buffalo stuff. I'm sure the mods can parse out the Winter War/Continuation War stuff and add them to a brand new thread.

 

[fly_Troy]

Recommend the book "Buffaloes Over Singapore" which includes a comprehensive list of Buffalo claims over Malaya and Singapore (but not Burma - there weren't any A6Ms in Burma so that theatre doesn't count for your question). The list includes:

14 Jan 42 - 1x A6M probable, Fisken
15 Jan 42 - 1x A6M probable (crashed), Garden and Weber (shared)
17 Jan 42 - 1x A6M probable, Vanderfield and Clare (shared)
18 Jan 42 - 4x A6M confirmed, 5x A6M probable, Kuhn (2 confirmed), Sharp (1 confirmed), Baldwin (1 confirmed), MacIntosh (2 probable), Arthur (1 probable), Kronk (1 probable), Meaclem (1 probable)
19 Jan 42 - 1x A6M probable, Kirkman
21 Jan 42 - 2x A6M confirmed, 1x A6M probable, Wipiti (1 confirmed), Fisken (1 confirmed), and Kronk (1 probable)
26 Jan 42 - 1x A6M confirmed, Cranstone
1 Feb 42 - 1x A6M probable, Fisken

In addition, we have the following claims from the RNEIAF from the same source:

28 Dec 41 - 2x A6M confirmed, unidentified pilots of 1-VlG-V
24 Jan 42 - 2x A6M confirmed, van Rest and Benjamins
19 Feb 42 - 2x A6M confirmed, van Hesldingen and Bruggink (the date of the latter isn't confirmed)

Note these are A6M claims only. There are many more claims for IJAAF aircraft, including multiple Ki-43s.

So… I've been wanting to ask. How the Buffalo compared to the Wildcat in the areas that allowed the wildcat to eventually turn the tide against Japan.

1) What was the comparative dive speed?
2) how did it handle taking damage from the zero?
3) how heavy (or light) were the controls at high speed? And how did it compare to the wild cat overall when used for "boom and zoom"?

 

[Dimlee]

To note, there are good videos about Brewster Buffalo on this channel:

Showtime112

This channel is about the history of military aviation. If you were a fan of History Channel's Dogfights, you will enjoy this content. We similarly use computer graphics to reenact clashes between various military aircraft, but we cover a much wider range of stories, including many 'forgotten'...

www.youtube.com

Malaya and Finland were covered.

 

[GregP]

Do we have any reports on what the Japanese thought of the Buffalo?

View attachment 751834

Now, what if we swap out the Wright R-1820 Cyclone for a Nakajima Sakae?

You'd have less horsepower ... but more easily-available local parts.

 

[FulmenTheFinn]

Ever since I got my hands on Francis H. Dean's America's Hundred-Thousand in March 2025, I've wondered about this paragraph on page 444 of the book:

Aug '39-Poland orders 250 F2A-type fighters for $15.0 million. The order is never filled since Poland is invaded by Germany the next month and overwhelmed.

Now theoretically, had WW2 started say a couple of years later, would Brewster have been able to deliver Poland 250 F2As? That many aircraft sounds like a tall order for the company, not unlike the orders its corrupt sales department was selling particularly to Latin American countries, as I recall. But presumably at least some of those aircraft would've made it Poland. So are talking F2A-1-based Model 239s, or F2A-2-based Model 339s here, or both? And do we know what peculiarities specific to Poland the aircraft would've featured, and so on? Essentially I'm interested in any kind of information on this order.

jimmaas I figured I'd ping you with this specifically, as you might know more, but anyone is of course welcome to reply.

 

[Elvis]

Ever since I got my hands on Francis H. Dean's America's Hundred-Thousand in March 2025, I've wondered about this paragraph on page 444 of the book:

Aug '39-Poland orders 250 F2A-type fighters for $15.0 million. The order is never filled since Poland is invaded by Germany the next month and overwhelmed.

Now theoretically, had WW2 started say a couple of years later, would Brewster have been able to deliver Poland 250 F2As? That many aircraft sounds like a tall order for the company, not unlike the orders its corrupt sales department was selling particularly to Latin American countries, as I recall. But presumably at least some of those aircraft would've made it Poland. So are talking F2A-1-based Model 239s, or F2A-2-based Model 339s here, or both? And do we know what peculiarities specific to Poland the aircraft would've featured, and so on? Essentially I'm interested in any kind of information on this order.

jimmaas I figured I'd ping you with this specifically, as you might know more, but anyone is of course welcome to reply.

Would they have even needed that long to fill the order? You probably know better than I, but I wonder if they couldn't have gotten it done, say, by late spring / early summer of '40?
So if the invasion had happened, maybe a few months later (let's say, early spring of 1940), the order would've been well under production and some planes may have actually already been on the way, or even in service. That would've changed how the beginning of the war went, fairly drastically, I think.
My thinking is that the planes that Poland would've received would've been B239's, since that version was still in production at the time. I don't think the 339's came along until at least 1942, right?

 

[buffnut453]

My thinking is that the planes that Poland would've received would've been B239's, since that version was still in production at the time. I don't think the 339's came along until at least 1942, right?

The XF2A-2 first flew in July 1939. Orders for Model 339s, that were derived from the F2A-2, came in later that year or in early 1940. The first Model 339 was delivered to Belgium just ahead of the German offensive into western Europe in May 1940.

 

[Shortround6]

Brewster built 11 planes in 1939, 160-166 planes in 1940 and 309 in 1941. Getting another 250 was going to be hard. Or replace the British order?
Using 339s of any type against a mix of 109Es and 109Fs was not going to be pretty in late 1941.

 

[FulmenTheFinn]

Would they have even needed that long to fill the order? You probably know better than I, but I wonder if they couldn't have gotten it done, say, by late spring / early summer of '40?
So if the invasion had happened, maybe a few months later (let's say, early spring of 1940), the order would've been well under production and some planes may have actually already been on the way, or even in service. That would've changed how the beginning of the war went, fairly drastically, I think.
My thinking is that the planes that Poland would've received would've been B239's, since that version was still in production at the time. I don't think the 339's came along until at least 1942, right?

Model 339s existed as a concept of export model for the F2A-2 in 1939; if memory serves the "39" in the model number refers to 1939. The Brits prepared an order for 120 Model 339s for the RAF in August 1939 (same month as the Polish order), being issued in January 1940 as 120 Model 339Es and later being raised to 170 Model 339Es. In December 1939 the Belgians ordered 40 Model 339s (to be known as 339Bs), of which six were diverted to the Finnish order of 44 Model 239s, also made in December 1939 (the Belgians were nonetheless ultimately meant to receive all aircraft that they purchased).

Regarding production, Brewster was plagued with difficulties, and sometimes they'd produce just one or two aircraft a month and sometimes a couple or few dozen. I'm going off memory here, but as I recall BAC's factory had heaps of people who didn't work there (i.e. trespassers), some of the aircraft were stuffed with nuts, bolts and tools as acts of sabotage, and they had to essentially shake them out of some of the aircraft, there were strikes, etc. It was a royal shitshow.

 

[Elvis]

Brewster built 11 planes in 1939, 160-166 planes in 1940 and 309 in 1941. Getting another 250 was going to be hard. Or replace the British order?
Using 339s of any type against a mix of 109Es and 109Fs was not going to be pretty in late 1941.

They actually built 44 in '39. The 11 you mentioned are the ones that actually made it to active military service.
The reason for the low number in active service is because the sales staff at Brewster had already convinced the Navy to take the newer "better" version, so that first 11 planes, plus the 33 others being built were all shipped off to Finland to fight the Russians and were replaced with F2A-2's.

 

[Shortround6]

They actually built 44 in '39. The 11 you mentioned are the ones that actually made it to active military service.

They completed 11 in 1939. The planes for Finland were completed/delivered in Jan and Feb 1940. It took until April for them to arrive in Finland.
The 11 American F2A-1s stayed in America. VF-3 got 9 in Dec 1939 and had 10 in June 1940 and still had many of them in Nov 1940 along with some -2s.
In May of 1941 eight of the F2A-1s were upgraded (rebuilt) to F2A-2 standards.

The reason for the low number in active service is because the sales staff at Brewster had already convinced the Navy to take the newer "better" version, so that first 11 planes, plus the 33 others being built were all shipped off to Finland to fight the Russians and were replaced with F2A-2's.

The navy orders conversion of the XF2A-1 prototype to XF2A-2 standard om March 22nd 1939.
1st production F2A-1 is completed June 20th 1939.
July 1939 sees the XF2A-2 prototype rolled out and flight testing begun.
F2A-2 production started in Sept 1940.

Brewster production was pretty crappy. Not helped by the production change overs. Brewster built planes for the Belgians and British in May, June and July of 1940. Production stopped in Aug to make the F2A-2s for the USN. Once the F2A-2 order was completed Brewster went back to filling the British and Dutch orders (1st Dutch order). USN orders 108 F2A-3s in Jan 1941. First one is delivered in July after the British/Dutch orders were completed.

 

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

USN contract 61074 dated 11 June 1938, for 54 F2A-1, 43 cancelled, reordered as F2A-2, "In December 1939 the contract was split into 11 F2A-1 and 43 F2A-2, serials 1390 and 1393 diverted to F3A-1", F2A-1 serials 1386 to 1396, so not sure about the F3A comment. Wright R1820-34 engine, accepted May to December 1939. There were 42 F2A-2 acceptances September to November 1940 and 1 in January 1941, serials 1397 to 1439, Wright R1820-40 engine. Second USN order was 76708 dated 21 January 1941, 108 F2A-3, accepted July to December 1941, serials 01516 to 01623, Wright R1820-40 engine.

Unfortunately the USN does not track foreign orders before January 1940 and uses the USN contract and date for the foreign orders in 1940, then has no contract details in 1941 and 1942. It calls the Finland aircraft F2A-1, British and Belgian F2A-2, Netherlands F2A

Finland 38 F2A-1/model 239, January and February 1940, Wright R1820-34 engine, as is known Finland received 44, 43 diverted from the USN production schedule, plus 1 often reported assembled from spare parts. The USAAF says 6 acceptances in 1939, 17 deliveries and exports in January and 27 deliveries and exports in February 1940.

Belgium 40 model 339 April to July 1940, Wright GR1820-G105A engine
Britain 170 model 339E December 1940 to May 1941, Wright GR1820-G105A engine
Netherlands 92 ordered, accepted as 72 model 339D March to June 1941, Wright GR1820-G105A engine and 20 model 439D January to March 1942, Wright GR1820-G205A engine, note the USN thinks the final 20 were actually 339D models.

Acceptances. The XF2A-1/XF2A-2 was accepted in December 1938. The 6 Buffalo accepted pre 1940 for Finland *assumed* in December 1939.

Month	Total	F2A	F2A-1	F2A-2	F2A-3
Jun-39​	1​		1​
Jul-39​	1​		1​
Aug-39​	1​		1​
Sep-39​	0​
Oct-39​	0​
Nov-39​	2​		2​
Dec-39​	12​		12​
Jan-40​	24​		24​
Feb-40​	14​		14​
Mar-40​	0​
Apr-40​	1​			1​
May-40​	8​			8​
Jun-40​	22​			22​
Jul-40​	9​			9​
Aug-40​	0​
Sep-40​	6​			6​
Oct-40​	20​			20​
Nov-40​	16​			16​
Dec-40​	40​			40​
Jan-41​	43​			43​
Feb-41​	18​			18​
Mar-41​	36​	18​		18​
Apr-41​	46​	10​		36​
May-41​	43​	27​		16​
Jun-41​	17​	17​
Jul-41​	1​				1​
Aug-41​	24​				24​
Sep-41​	41​				41​
Oct-41​	23​				23​
Nov-41​	9​				9​
Dec-41​	10​				10​
Jan-42​	10​	10​
Feb-42​	0​
Mar-42​	1​	1​
Apr-42​	9​	9​
1939​	17​	0​	17​	0​	0​
1940​	160​	0​	38​	122​	0​
1941​	311​	72​	0​	131​	108​
1942​	20​	20​	0​	0​	0​
Total	508​	92​	55​	253​	108​

 

[FulmenTheFinn]

Finland 38 F2A-1/model 239, January and February 1940, Wright R1820-34 engine, as is known Finland received 44, 43 diverted from the USN production schedule, plus 1 often reported assembled from spare parts.

They received Wright R-1820-G5 engines instead, because the Wright R-1820-34 wasn't approved for export.

The approved Finnish purchase order from 16 December 1939, signed by the VP of BAC, Dayton T. Brown, and addressed to the Finnish Minister in Washington, Hjalmar J. Procopé, and the Finnish Military Attaché in Washington, Col. Per Zilliacus, concerns 44 aircraft to be delivered as follows:

6 December 31, 1939
18 more before January 15, 1940
20 more before February 1, 1940

These dates were not met, and the first 11 Brewsters did not leave New York Harbor until 13 January 1940, when they set out aboard SS Mormacktide to Bergen, Norway, where they arrived two weeks later. From there they were shipped by rail to the SAAB factories in Trollhättan, Sweden, for assembly and test flights by an assembly of Americans, Swedes, Norwegians, Brits and Finns. The Finns paid the Swedes for the assembly of various aircraft the Finns had ordered or were receiving, though there was some volunteer work involved as well. The rest of the planes were shipped aboard SS Mormackstar (departed 20 January), SS Southfolk (departed 7 February) and SS Mormacksea (departed 19 February), with the final shipment being in Bergen on 13 March 1940, the day the Winter War ended.

Despite the belatedness the shipments were rushed in the US, which resulted in missing spare parts. Only three aircraft had been assembled and test-flown in the US (interestingly, at least one of them apparently one of the six aircraft diverted from the Belgian order of 339s), which in turn resulted in aircraft parts not properly fitting together at the SAAB factory in Sweden, which meant the assembly crews had to do some fiddling with them in order to actually assemble the final aircraft. BAC not making the promised delivery dates was itself a breach of contract that meant BAC owed the Finns a late fee payment. The Finns, wanting to maintain good relations with BAC in order to ensure future spare parts, did not immediately demand the fee in the spring of 1940. Only later when the delivery of spare parts was cut anyway, did the Finns demand the late fee. BAC disputed it, but was forced to pay the Finns a fine of $25,000 in 1942.

The first four Brewsters to arrive in Finland were flown from Sweden on 1 March 1940. Another two made it to the country before the WW was over. None saw combat in that war, which was likely for the best, as the aircraft then went through a period of fixing a myriad of teething issues I've covered to some extent earlier on page 8 of this thread, here. With the issues addressed, the Brewster was a good aircraft on the Eastern Front in 1941, and still to a large extent in 1942.

 

[buffnut453]

(interestingly, at least one of them apparently one of the six aircraft diverted from the Belgian order of 339s)

Do you have a source for that? I've never heard of a single Model 339 being sent to Finland. One of the Belgian 339s was captured by German forces in either France or Belgium...but I've never heard of one being in Sweden/Finland.

If you have a source, I'd be interested in learning more.

 

[Frog]

Do you have a source for that? I've never heard of a single Model 339 being sent to Finland. One of the Belgian 339s was captured by German forces in either France or Belgium...but I've never heard of one being in Sweden/Finland.

If you have a source, I'd be interested in learning more.

the aircraft, there were strikes, etc. It was a royal shitshow.

Because of the invasion of Belgium, the crafted shipment was diverted to the port of Bordeaux on 28 May 1940 and captured at the airport of Bordeaux Mérignac, the plane being assembled in Germany.

 

[buffnut453]

Because of the invasion of Belgium, the crafted shipment was diverted to the port of Bordeaux on 28 May 1940 and captured at the airport of Bordeaux Mérignac, the plane being be assembled in Germany.

Thanks Frog. I thought it was in France but couldn't quite remember. Appreciate the additional detail.