The Brewster F2A, the U.S. Navy's first monoplane shipboard
fighter, saw brief combat service during the first half-year of the Pacific
War. Built in 1936-38, Brewster's XF2A-1 prototype bested the Grumman XF4F-2
in a competition to replace the Grumman F3F biplane fighter.
A production contract
for F2A-1 production aircraft followed in June
1938. Production difficulties, a
continuing problem throughout the life of the
Brewster company, delayed service introduction
until late 1939, when F2A-1s began to join USS
Saratoga's Fighting Squadron Three (VF-3).
Only eleven of the fifty-four
F2A-1s entered Navy service. The rest were
modified and sold to Finland, where they served
with considerable success against Soviet
aircraft during 1941-44 and against the Germans
in 1944-45.
Other versions of the F2A
were subsequently employed against the Japanese
by the British Royal Air Force and the
Netherlands East Indies Army Air Corps.
In 1940, deliveries began of
43 F2A-2 fighters, which had the 1200 horsepower
Wright "Cyclone" engine in place of the F2A-1's
950 horsepower version, plus numerous other
improvements. Eight F2A-1s were also rebuilt to
F2A-2 standards.
Initially serving with VF-3
and USS Lexington's VF-2, this model was a fast,
nimble and well-armed fighting plane, though
plagued (as were subsequent F2As) with an
overly-delicate retractable landing gear and a
maintenance-hungry powerplant.
The Navy ordered a final 108
Brewster fighters in January 1941. These F2A-3s
featured a longer fuselage, increased fuel and
ammunition capacity, additional armor and
considerably greater weight.
By the beginning of the
Pacific War, the F2A, by then also known by the
popular name "Buffalo", was passing out of
carrier squadron service in favor of the F4F-3.
The Brewster
fighter's only U.S. combat use, on 4 June 1942
during the Battle of Midway, dramatically showed
the inferiority of the F2A-3 when confronted by
the Japanese Navy's "Zero" carrier fighters and
well-trained aviators.
