General Background

The Brewster F2A Buffalo was USN's first mono-wing fighter. The status of the “Buffalo” is somewhat controversial in the history of aviation. It was designed by US but saw its real success only in Finland, a co-belligerent of Germany during WWII. It was designed as a carrier based fighter but only saw combat from land bases.

The most distinctive feature of the Buffalo was the retractable landing gear. With the right pilot the plane was quite capable in combat. Some historians believe that some units of the Commonwealth squadrons may have achieved a 2 to 1 kill ratio in the Far East.

The Aircraft

In July 1941 the USMC fighter squadron VMF-221 “Fighting Falcons” was formed in San Diego. After the attack on Pearl Harbor VMF-221 was sent to Marine Corps Air Station Ewa on Hawaii. On December 25th 1941 14 F2A-3 aircraft of VMF-221 took off from USS Saratoga and landed on Midway Island to form part of a relief force. After their F2A-3’s were out performed and almost completely destroyed by Japanese Zeroes at the Battle ofMidway the VFM-221 returned to EWA.