Before There Were Cats & The Maligned Brewster Buffalo

Before There Were Cats & The Maligned Brewster Buffalo

BEFORE THERE WERE CATS
&
THE MALIGNED BREWSTER BUFFALO

Before There Were Cats

This publication features two military aviation articles by noted historian Barrett Tillman.

During World War II, the U.S. Navy presented Grumman Aircraft Corporation with a commendation, commenting, â€œThe name Grumman on a plane has the same meaning that sterling has on silver.â€ The companyâ€™s productsâ€”most significantly the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat fightersâ€”were vital to victory in the Pacific from 1942 through 1945.
But the Long Island firmâ€™s reputation dated from a decade before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Throughout the 1930s, Grumman delivered a succession of increasingly capable carrier aircraft that pointed the way to victory in the forthcoming war. Though the biplane fighters predated the feline names of later Grumman aircraft, the company steadily gained the navyâ€™s confidence for rugged, reliable aircraft. Many of the World War II generation of naval aviators learned their trade in the FF, F2F, and F3F designs before the monoplane F4F appeared in 1940.

While the â€œpre-catsâ€ were built in small numbers owing to limited peacetime budgets, Grummanâ€™s corporate culture was established on those fabric-covered wings. The artisans who produced the biplanes of the 1930s set an example for the industrial capacity of the 1940s, with war-winning results that could hardly have been conceivable during the Great Depression.

Barrett Tillmanâ€™s â€œBefore There Were Catsâ€ is partly based on research in Grumman archives during the 1970s.

The Maligned Brewster Buffalo

Among the most criticized aircraft in U.S. military history is the Brewster F2A Buffalo. Its disastrous combat in Marine Corps service during the Battle of Midway in June 1942 seemingly doomed the rotund fighter to eternal damnation, even though that 15-minute contest was the typeâ€™s only significant action in American service.

Naval aviation historian Barrett Tillman steps back to offer a reasoned assessment of the Buffalo, contrasting its miserable reputation with the context of its use. The time, place, and circumstances of the Midway battle have seldom been examined amid the conventional wisdom that consigns the F2A to historyâ€™s scrapheap.

Moreover, Tillman examines the Buffalo in foreign service, including little-known arenas as far flung as British use in Asia, the Dutch East Indies, and most particularly in Finland. In each of those venues, the Buffalo and its export variants proved far more capable than the Midway debacle indicated. Citing individual pilots from the British Commonwealth and Finland, Tillman builds a case for â€œrehabilitatingâ€ the Brewsterâ€™s reputation, almost in a Stalinist sense.

In examining the Buffaloâ€™s U.S. Navy service, the author notes that the type had its advocates who enjoyed its performance in flight. The F2Aâ€™s major failing, he contends, was suitability for aircraft carriers, as the spindly landing gear posed problems.
In this refreshing reassessment, a widely damned subject emerges from seven decades of contempt, earning more respect than it has yet received.

Country	USA
Author	Barrett Tillman
Binding	Kindle Edition
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	Pacifica Military History
Manufacturer	Pacifica Military History
NumberOfPages	25
PublicationDate	2016-08-29
Publisher	Pacifica Military History
ReleaseDate	2016-08-29
Studio	Pacifica Military History

Before There Were Cats & The Maligned Brewster Buffalo

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