Brewster Buffalo Series Pt 12: Blitz on Singapore 

Mark, Thank you much for telling the story of the heroic Buffalo pilots over Malaya, Singapore, Burma, and Dutch East Indies. They are deserving of having their stories told and have all but been left out of history because of the losses. It is very interesting that B.O.B. aces got a TERRIBLE surprise from the Japanese and, had they been equipped with Spitfires at Singapore, the outcome would've remained the same. This would be confirmed by the first few battles between the IJNAF Zeroes and Spitfire MK Vs when the "Churchill Wing", commanded by Clive "Killer" Caldwell, took over defense of Northern Australia. Another lost cause. The Zero was the force to be reckoned with early in the war. I spent nearly 20 years writing veterans of the early Pacific war 1941-42. I knew Geoff Fisken, Rex Weber and many other veterans. Like always the Australians are usually blamed by the Brits when things go wrong in war. This is a great mistake. There are so many stories of heroism beyond anything people could imagine in modern times. Rex Weber was a good friend and told of the time he chased Ki-21 bombers out to sea after their raid on Singapore. Running at full throttle it took over 40 minutes to slowly catch them but the rear gunners caught him in a crossfire and his Buffalo was badly shot up. As it was all over the Pacific at that time, they were failed by their leaders and sacrificed by them. Many of the veterans went into captivity and died by the thousands in the various slave labor camps and on the Burma-Siam Death Railway. And on the Hell Ships or Unit 731 horror camps. The movie Bridge Over The River Kwai is a disgrace and dishonors those men. A better film is "Railway Man". The book Series "Bloody Shambles, Vols 1 and 2" is most excellent for those wanting to know more. Fisken loved flying the Buffalo during training days and was thrilled by the way it handled. The lack of armor, low quality machine guns and ammunition, combined with Brewster installing used Wright Cyclone engines bought cheap from the airlines and poor quality workmanship at the Brewster factory contributed to the defeats. Brewster had an evil reputation with a number of Allied governments and their sales people were well-known for being crooks who would promise anything to get the sales. As a former DC-3 mechanic, I can state from experience that the Wright Cyclone is an outstanding and worthy engine, known for its reliability and toughness. The story of the Pacific War 1941-42 overall is huge and will draw you into a rabbit hole where one answer creates 50 more questions and, after awhile, a person realizes the history we were taught in school is a stretch of the truth at best. Governments cover up and white-wash events like we see here to protect the lousy politicians and ignorant, arrogant, egotistical leadership from public outcry and criticism, something that is worse today, although they can't get away with it anymore! Thank you again for your fine tribute to those who lived this part of the story. Heroes one and all.

I'm really enjoying this series, thanks for producing it! One small point, the name Noel (i.e. Noel Sharp of 488sqn) is pronounced differently in British (and thus Commonwealth) english compared to that of the US, in that it is pronounced 'Nole', rhymes with 'mole'.

Great video on battles seldom covered , really into this series . Thanks again Mark

Always enjoy the content and detail of your videos Mark, keep up the great work mate 👍

4daalgorithm ❤❤❤❤❤

Nice video

The allies just had too few buffalos and not very experienced pilots. The Japanese were in no way facing a Battle of Britain like situation over coloanal Asia. But the Allies had their best & brightest commanders in Europe & North Africa not the Far East and it showed badly.