Most ignored combat aircraft of ww2

The Hawk 75 (P-36) had quite an extensive combat CV during WW2, more than most realise. In French hands they battled the Luftwaffe in the spring of 1940, in Finnish hands they battled the Russians and in Vichy French hands they fought against the British and US. In South African hands as the Mohawk - ex French contract aircraft supplied to the UK and modified, as the French had the throttles operate the wrong way, pull back for power, not Balls-to-the-Wall (!) - they fought against the Italians and Germans and in the Pacific Dutch Hawk 75s and in the CBI theatre RAF Mohawks scrapped with the Japanese.

1507 Flying Legends Hawk 75

The problem analysis of Brown faces is that too many people, including people on this forum base their opinions on what they've read on the internet without having read any of his books.

One whole class of aircraft ignored is the spotter aircraft, L-2, L-5 , Storks , etc.

They surely got fired at plenty, they usually couldn't fire back directly, But they could call down arty on your head though.
No armor, unless they stole the stove top lids off field kitchens ( to sit on ) like some early WW1 observation pilots were reputed to have done.

I'll add the Focke-Wulf Fw 58. It served several roles (trainer, transport, etc) and over 1000 were built. The only survivor on display is in Brazil.

As an aside to Tom's post 163, I met a WW1 vet in Denver outside the VA hospital early one Sunday morning in 1960. He was in a wheelchair and asked us, as fellow service men (we were in uniform), to help him down the front steps. We then walked with him to a diner where he was going for coffee. When asked about his injury, his catch phrase was "Somebody stole my stove lid." It is true that , according to him, that the Fokker D-7 had enough power that when they dove on you from the front, they could hang on the prop long enough for you to fly through their bullets. Because of this, the Americans were customers of a thriving business of buying stolen French stove lids. Since there weren't enough for all, the pilots slept with them under their pillows. After a night of drinking some one stole his from under his pillow and although being marked he never found it. In combat, a D-7 got him and a bullet went into his spine, his only wound. He told us flying back and landing without his legs was more difficult than combat. He was in a VA center ever since. I don't think we even asked what he flew, at least I don't remember.