Steve Ginter Publications

Naval Fighters #76, Brewster SB2A Bermuda/Buccaneer

by  Steve Ginter

Reviewed By  Stephen Bierce, IPMS# 35922

MSRP: $19.95 ISBN: 0-942612-76-0 The Naval Fighters series is available from the publisher at www.ginterbooks.com . Just this year, a Brewster Bermuda dive-bomber, which spent nearly four decades forgotten in the wasteland of an abandoned airfield before being found and restored, joined the collection at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida. Steve Ginter took the opportunity to create this new book on the ambitious but ill-starred aircraft. The follow-on to the pioneering SBA/SBN and the more successful F2A Buffalo, the SB2A was brought about by a U.S. Navy design competition (that also led to the Buccaneer's main competitor, Curtiss' SB2C Helldiver) and an additional British Royal Air Force requirement (eventually met by Vultee's Vengeance). By the time WW2 broke out in Europe, Brewster received quantity orders for the plane even before the first mockup was completed. From then till the first flight of the prototype, the SB2A project got caught in the maelstrom of changing technical needs and demands coming from combat experience at the front. Initially, the SB2A was designed to mount a power turret for the rear machine guns, as on the Grumman TBF Avenger. It was soon determined that the resulting plane would be overweight and it went to production without the turret. It took two years from the prototype's first flight for the SB2A program to proceed to field trials...and by then, both the Navy and the Royal Air Force found other aircraft to fill the needed roles. This, combined with the Buccaneer's failure in aircraft carrier acceptability trials and overall lacking production quality control, doomed the Buccaneer--as well as Brewster itself. Due to Brewster's repeated inability to meet production standards and quotas on their Navy contracting work, President Roosevelt himself took the unprecedented action to have the Navy seize control of the company and its factories. The Navy accepted only about 300 Buccaneers into service (including some built for export), and all of these would be retired from their training and utility roles by 1945. A further 200 or so made it to Britain, where most were scrapped without being issued to squadrons. The remainder (about 80) were sent to U.S. Army maintenance units for mechanics' training--including the one now in the NMNA. Ginter's 98-page book has dozens of photos and detailed drawings of Buccaneers and Bermudas, including 1/72nd scale drawings by Lloyd S. Jones.

The dramatic color photo on the cover shows an unmanned Buccaneer being caught in a crash barrier being tested for the Midway-class aircraft carriers. The great majority of the photographs are archival, but some are from the airplane in the Pensacola collection, as it was rebuilt. The wartime maintenance and operator's manual drawings and walkaround photos provide a wealth of visual information on the Buccaneer. The layouts are very impressive and well-executed. Ginter's writing is straight-forward and easy to understand. The technical and historical detail is there but not in an overwhelming fashion. A reader can find what he needs to know easily. Many visuals come with helpful explanatory text. There aren't any current injection-molded scale models of the Buccaneer, although there are some vacuform and resin-cast ones. This book has enough information to make a full scratchbuild possible, or a superdetailing of one of the short-run kits. Highly recommended. Thanks to Steve Ginter and IPMS/USA for my review copy.

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