Saw an interesting photo yesterday...

[Steve T]

Hi all--

Was at a local flea market yesterday afternoon; as we were about to leave my dad wanted to show me an old photo he'd found there, showing what the fellow at that stall said was "an old French airplane".

Hanging high up on the wall near the stall, very crudely framed, was an old 9x12 or so B&W print of something that certainly wasn't French: a snapshot showing an RAF-looking gent in wedge cap, standing in the cockpit of an engineless and badly shot-up RAF-marked Brewster F2A. Part of the serial ("AX...") was visible as were the fin flash and a roundel under one wing (the latter two details probably led the flea market fellow to conclude that the F2A was "French").

The question, of course, is...where and when?? I do know that nearly all the British Buffalos were sent to the Far East, mostly in the defence of Singapore/HK/Malaya, and that a few passed to the RAAF in the same theatre--and that they fared, well, like the one in this photo had fared. If the photo is still at the market next time I'm there I may acquire it. If not, well, at least the vendor now knows what the airplane is...

S.

[lmritger]

Buffaloes fought in the Med as well; there's a fairly well-known pic of a derelict captured Buffalo with a Ju 52 landing behind it, taken on Crete if memory serves correctly.

I'd be interested in seeing a scan of the pic, if you do pick it up...

Lynn