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Originally Posted by Kongo Otto Most overrated WW2 airplanes:
Brewster Buffalo
Fairey Battle
Boulton-Paul Defiant |
These three weren't over-rated at all. If anything, they are under-rated!
Ok,ok I know that sounds totally crazy, but think of it this way. The Buffalo, although slaughtered in the hands of the RAF and NEIAF, was not just a sacrificial lamb. A number of kills were scored against the 'invincible' Zero by Buffalo pilots. The B-239 (a Buffalo derivative) was a successful fighter in the Baltic until 1943. In fact, a Finnish B-239 holds the record for the most air-to-air kills ever made by a single airframe - 73 with three different pilots IIRC. Considering that by the Continuation War, the Russians were introducing modern MiG and Yak fighters, this would seem to suggest that the Buffalo wasn't that bad an airframe.
The Battle was out-classed from the start. That makes it even more amazing that it did the damage it did in France. Im not going to pretend it saved the BEF or anything like that, because it didnt. However, the strikes which cost so many Battles did hold the Germans up - and any time bought for the BEF during the retreat to Dunkirk was precious.
The Defiant was actually quite a successful dayfighter until the Germans got over the novelty value of it. It snared a fair few 109s, and against the 110s and bombers, it functioned much as expected - the pilot maneuvered into position, and the four tightly spaced .303s shredded the hapless victim. In fact, the Defiants greatest advantage was that it didnt have to attack bombers from the two most dangerous angles, ahead and astern. It just snuggled up alongside and let rip...on most German bombers of the time, beam armament was non-existent, so there was nothing they could do to defend themselves.
After the jagdgeschwader got over the initial shock of meeting the Defiant, they were able to reassess the situation. They improved thier aircraft recognition, worked out new responses to the threat, and the Defiant died much the same kind of conceptual death as the Bf110 had over England.
Like the 110, the Defiant became a nightfighter. Being single-engined and having no radar, it wasnt as much of a success as its larger, radar equipped adversary. However, it was, with the Hurricane, a vitally important stopgap until the Beaufighter and Mossie arrived in signifiacant numbers to give the nightfighters the upper hand against the later episodes of the Blitz.
So, if anything, these three aircraft should, IMHO, be found in the 'Most UNDER-RATED Aircraft of WW2' thread
............
To those in that club. 
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