The much maligned Brewster Buffalo, considered one of the worst fighters of the Allies, twice graces The Guinness Book of World Records. In the hands of the Ilmavoimat, the Finnish Air Force, the model 239 Buffalo claims the record of almost 11 kills per airframe, and most kills for an individual airframe (41 with airframe number BW-393)!

Color photos of the recovery and display of BW-372 is found at The Last Flight of BW-372

Great link Fred, thanks!
Lots of nice reference pictures there. If my Buffalo ends up looking like crap I may just stick a 372 on the side of it and claim it to be "after recovery" . :-)

On a more serious side, it's nice to see the old gal out of the water and being restored. Lots of great history there and it would be a shame to loose it for good.

Maybe someone can explain it to me, how a plane reputed to be one of the worst in some hands did so well in others?
I understand how the Flying Tiger/AVG used the strengths of the P40 against the weaknesses of the Zero and avoided getting into lopsided fights that played against the P40, but how did the Finns manage to use the Buffalo so effectively?

Mike

Hi Mike,

IMHO it appears that in almost all wars, a better lead, more professional military will triumph, or at least achieve more prior to defeat, than an inferior force of greater numbers. The bulk of the Soviet pilots at the time were the same "Cylon Drones" (to borrow USAF's 1970s-1980s disparaging description of the Soviet pilots) the Luftwaffe was downing by the squadron.

The Finns were fighting for their homes and invested heavily in tactics, doctrine and training. The Red Air Force was still suffering from Stalin's purges, and had its hands full with the Luftwaffe.

The Buffalo was NOT a bad airplane. It was obsolescent against the Japanese A6M2 whose pilots were, at Midway, still probably the best in the world. Over SEA Asia, the IJA's Oscars were also better than the Buffalos, and their pilots were probably better prepared, too.

However, in the skies of the midnight sun (hmmmm...isn't there a campaign going with that name???? ), the Buffalo was down low, in cool air, where most airplanes perform very similar.

The Finns had the "home field advantage". They were mainly fighting defensively which could give them the choosing of where and when to attack. The Soviets were involved in attack aviation, so the Brewsters had heavily laden attackers to go after.

The Brewster 239 was more or less on par with most of the planes the Red A.F. was flying, and their pilots gave them the edge over Red A.F. Spitfires, etc.

That's it in a nut shell.

Regards,

Fred

DITTO to everything Fred said.
I would add that the gallon of Vodka the Russian pilots drank every day didn't help their flying abilities either. :-)