To say the bloom was off the rose between the U.S. Navy and the Brewster Aeronautical Corp. by 1942 would be an understatement. However, a little cash here, a few photos of admirals in compromising positions there and Brewster was given a second chance contract to develop a new Navy heavy fighter concept. Genius can strike in odd places, and it happened to hit the Brewster design office in Long Island City when an engineer came across an article about the Republic P-47 and decided the Jug's Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp two-row 18-cylinder radial engine would be a perfect fit. Thus the F3A was born.
The new fighter was everything the F2A-3 of late 1941 wasn't. It was wicked fast and set the Navy time to combat altitude record in March, 1942. Maneuverable and heavily armed with four 20 mm cannon, the prototype was a beefier Buffalo and henceforth, would be known as the Beefalo.
The Navy ordered a service test squadron. As primary emphasis was on the forthcoming Grumman F6F Hellcat, the duty of testing the Beefalo under field conditions fell to U.S Marine Corps fighter squadron VMF-219, the Red Headed Step-Children.
From November, 1942, the Red Headed Step-Children put the Beefalo through its paces. They found that while the four 20 mm cannon had a slower rate of fire than the .50 cal. machine guns they were used to, the 20 mms obliterated anything they hit. Then in the summer of 1943, VMF-219 and their Beefaloes were given a new mission.
Conceived as a follow on to the Operation Torch landings, Operation Storch was an amphibious attack designed to take the war directly to the enemy.
VMF-219 and their Beefaloes were embarked on the escort carrier CVE-5 U.S.S. Parmenter tasked with achieving air superiority over fascist forces. Before daybreak on July 4th, the Red Headed Step-Children took off and hunted the enemy all along the picturesque Côte d'Agarn near Dakar.
In what became un-known to history as the Dakar Duck Hunt, the Red Headed Step-Children of VMF-219 used their Beefaloes and their 20 mm cannon to great effect, completely wiping out any opposition in the air, sinking four Italian patrol boats and utterly destroying the airfield at O'Rourke's Drift.
The fact that the fascist air force consisted mainly of second-line wood and canvas covered biplanes was played down in the press and did little to tarnish the glory of VMF-219 or the Dakar Duck Hunt. The Red Headed Step-Children returned to the U.S. as heroes and were sent on a nationwide war-bond tour. It was only then that their glory was tarnished by behavior so debauched and alcohol-soaked that it cannot be repeated here.
Unfortunately, by the time the Red Headed Step-Children of VMF-2149 were let out of the brig, the Brewster F3A Beefalo had been superceded by the superior Grumman F6F Hellcat and no examples exist today except this toy-like model. Still, for a brief moment, the Beefalo took the war to the enemy in unique U.S. Marine Corps fashion.
Brian da Basher
