F2-A "BUFFALO"

VS-201 US Navy, Aboard USS Long Island "AVG-1", 1941.

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

USS Long Island was a converted cargo ship commissioned June 1941. She was the first USN ship to be designated an Auxiliary Carrier and was considerably slower and smaller than the fleet ships. The USS Long Island and her F2A-2's were both less capable of doing the job of the bigger and faster equipment. The 8 Brewsters of Scouting Squadron VS-201 were testing the feasibility of this class of carrier. Soon after Pearl Harbor VS-201 was land-based with the ship being converted back to cargo at war's end.