B-239E | The Finnish Buffalo

[PenguinRed 328]

The F2A Buffalo is a quite famous airplane that was mainly used in the pacific theatre against the imperial japanese forces.
This plane was quite obsolete and could'nt compete with the more modern japanese fighters, but in another theatre of war, namely the finnish one, the Buffalo performed extraordinarily well against soviet aircraft such as SB-2M's I-15's and I-16's and even in the continuation war against much more modern aircraft.

History

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In April of 1939 the Finnish government contacted the USA for possible supply of modern combat aircraft, to which the USA agreed later on, as the F2A-1 that were planned to be shipped to Finland were obsolete as the F2A-2 was entering service at the time. On the 16th December Finland signed the contract to procure 44 aircraft, which only requirement was that they be already operational and able to be fueled with 87-octane fuel. Brewster modified the F2A-1 into the B-239E, which got a new and more powerful engine and was de-navalized as Finland didn't need the Naval capabilty of the aircraft.

The Aircraft were delivered in 4 batches to Norway and then to Sweden, where they were assembled by SAAB in Trollhättan. Later on the Finns modified their aircraft with armored backrests, metric flight instruments and a new gun sight. In 1943, they further modified them by replacing the 7.62mm MG with a 12.7mm HMG to have a total of 4 .50 Cal. HMG's.

They did not take part in the winter war, but were used from 1941-1945 against the Soviets and scored 477 kills with only 19 losses during the whole war.
The best B-239E pilot Hans Wind which claims 39 kills and the Aircraft BW-364 was used to achieve almost 43 kills with all pilots operation it, possibly making it the highest scoring fighter frame in air warfare history.

A few of the 44 aircraft had specific nicknames due to who donated the money to be able to procure the aircraft.
The Finnish company Nokia, which nowadays sells smartphones, donated enough funds to purchase a B-239E and thus on BW 355 NOKA was inscribed.
On another plane, Tre Bröder was written as some money was donated by three swedish brothers to aid against the soviets.

After the armistice with the Soviet Union, the Finns used their remaining B-239E's against Germany during the Lapland War, and after that minor clash only 8 Aircraft were left.
The final 5 aircraft continued to fly up until 1948 and were later scrapped in 1953.

 

Specification of the B-239E

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Crew: 1
Length: 8.03m (26ft 4in)

Wingspan: 10.67m (35ft)

Height: 3.66m (12ft)

Wing area: 19.4m²  (209sq ft)

Empty / Loaded Mass: 2'020kg (4'453lb) / 2'640kg (5'820lb)

Powerplant: Wright R-1820-G5 Cyclone, 950hp

Maximum Speed: 478km/h (297mph)

Crusing Speed: 380km/h (236mph)
Climbrate: 11.7m/s (2165ft/min)
Range: 760km (472 miles)

 

Offensive Armament: 4x 12.7mm (.50) Browning HMG, 2 in wings and 2 in fuselage

 

Pictures

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The B239E called "NOKA"

B239E's in flight

Painting showing 2 B239E's and 1 I-16

 

Sources

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_F2A_Buffalo#Finland

https://www.historynet.com/brewster-buffalo-finland.htm

https://www.warbirdforum.com/faf.htm

https://www.warbirdforum.com/winston.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20080923010002/http://www.geocities.com/finnmilpge/fmp_faf_fighters.html

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/brewsterf2a1jm_1.htm

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by PenguinRed

[leroyonly 4,311]

Open for discussion. 

[Milocat 4,855]

+1, this would be great to see.  I'd put it in the Swedish tree at least at present with the other Finnish vehicles.

[Solarmod 1,204]

+1 Absolutely, especially for a Finnish Sub-tree for Sweden.  (Also I suggested the Finnish Evolution of this, the VL Humu)

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Edited January 31, 2022 by Solarmod

[Pony51 6,572]

Finnish tree when??

[PenguinRed 328]

On 04/08/2022 at 23:00, Pony51 said:

Finnish tree when??

well, seems like it happened

[leroyonly 4,311]

As the Finnish Buffalo has been implemented as per Update 2.21 Fire and Ice,

 

Moved to Implemented Suggestions.