Finnish Forces

"Flying Beer Bottles"

During the Continuation War (1941-'44) Finnish Brewster pilots shot down 484 aircrafts with own losses of 24. The top-scoring Buffalo pilot was Hans Wind, with 39 of his 75 kills with B-239s. The top scoring Finnish ace, Ilmari Juutilainen, scored 34 of his 94½ confirmed kills in B-239s. During the Winter War in December, 1939, Finns signed a contract for the provision of 44 Model 239 Brewster fighters. The total price to be paid was US $3.4 million, and the deal included the provision of spare parts, 10 replacement engines and 20 Hamilton Standard propellers. The Buffalo fighters that were sent to Finland were de-navalized; before these fighters were placed onto ships for delivery to Finland, Brewster Company employees removed all the naval equipment on the fighters, such as their tailhooks and life-raft containers, resulting in a somewhat lighter aircraft. The Finnish F2A-1s further lacked self-sealing fuel tanks and cockpit armor. These F2A-1 Buffalos given the export number Model B-239, were equipped with an export-approved Wright R-1820-G5 nine-cylinder radial engine of 950 hp (708 kW). After delivery to Finland, the Finnish Air Force added armored backrests for their pilots, metric flight instruments, the Finnish Väisälä T.h.m.40 gunsight, and four .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns. The top speed of the Finnish Buffalos, as modified, was 297 mph (478 km/h) at 15,675 ft (4,750 m), and their loaded weight was 5,820 lb (2,640 kg). Built in four batches, the "Finnish" Brewster were loaded to merchant ships in New York and shipped to Norway in January-February 1940. The crates with the fighters were sent by railway to Sweden and assembled by SAAB, near Gothenburg. But as the Winter War ended, only five Brewsters were combat-ready in Finland. The Brewster B-239E fighter aircraft was never referred to as the "Buffalo" in Finland; it was known simply as the "Brewster" or sometimes by the nicknames "Pearl of the Sky", "Butt-Walter", "American hardware" and "flying beer bottle". The 44 Buffalo Model B-239(export) fighters used by the FAF received serial numbers BW-351 to BW-394. In Finnish Air Force service, the B-239s were regarded as being very easy to fly, a "gentleman's plane". The Buffalo was also popular within the FAF because of their relatively long range and flight endurance, and also because of their low-trouble maintenance record. This was in part due to the efforts of the Finnish engine mechanics, who solved a problem that plagued the Wright Cyclone engine simply by inverting one of the piston rings in each cylinder. This had a positive effect on engine reliability. The cooler weather of Finland was also a plus for the engine. In the end, the Brewster Buffalo gained a reputation in Finnish Air Force service as one of their most successful fighter aircraft. Attacking Soviet Air Force pilots using formulaic defensive tactics, many Finnish pilots racked up enormous scores on the Finnish front. The default tactic was the four-plane "swarm" with a pair flying low (but visible, not too close to the terrain) as the bait and a pair flying high to dive on the eventual interceptors. In the long run, the Soviet Air Force on the Finnish front never developed an efficient approach to counter this tactic. After end of hostilities, cpt. Jorma Karhunen, one of the top-scoring Buffalo pilots(25½ kills out of his 31½ total) and commander of the 3rd flight of LeLv 24, recalled: "The Brewster model 239 was good against the older Russian fighters, I-153 and I-16. Hence the period 1941–42 was the best time for us. In 1943 it was already significantly more difficult when the Russians began to use their newer fighters against us... Later, with the Yaks, Hurricanes, Tomahawks and MiGs, it became a fight to the death." By late 1943, the lack of spare parts, aircraft wear-and-tear, and the improvement of Soviet fighters greatly reduced the effectiveness of the Finnish Buffalo. Brewster pilots still scored some 35 victories against Soviet aircraft in mid-1944. The last kills of Finnish Airforce were made with couple of B-239s, when they shot down two Ju 87s in Lapland War. The remaining Brewster Buffalos served until september of 1948, when the type saw it's last flight. They were all scrapped in 1953. Only remaining authentic B-239 today is the one that Lauri Pekuri crash landed to a Karelian lake in 1942, and was lifted from there in 1998.