Malaya

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "AMERICAN FIGHTERS FOR MALAYA, C. 12 AUGUST 1941

 

Royal Air Force mechanics in Singapore are working at top pressure to assemble, and pilots to test, large numbers of Brewster Buffaloes, American high-speed fighting planes. At one Singapore Royal Air Force station hangar after hangar is crammed with crated Buffaloes. Many of the planes are already in the air over Malaya, flown often by British fighter pilots, who have already shot down Nazi planes (one of them ten) in Europe. This photo shows part of one of the Buffalo assembly lines."

 

[There are a few pictures at the IWM that aren't digitized yet featuring Buffaloes over Malaya. Someday soon maybe]

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Australian Nos 21 and 453 Squadrons in Malaya begin re-equipping from CAC Wirraways to newly arrived export versions of the F2A-2 Brewster Buffalo.

 

Buffalo Mark I fighters being inspected at Sembawang airfield, Singapore, 12 Oct 1941. Unknown to the British and Australians at this time, Brewster Aeronautical Corporation has provided inferior aircraft with 1,000hp engines instead of the 1,200hp Wright Cyclones ordered, in some cases providing used engines pulled from airliners. The aircraft will have numerous problems in operation, including a tendency to spray oil on the windshield.

- At this time the US Navy is phasing out the F2A-1 with the 950hp engine."