Finland Loved The Brewster Buffalo, So They Copied It: VL Humu

Video Description

In this video, we talk about the VL Humu, a Finnish-made copy of America's Brewster F2A Buffalo, a fighter plane that is often cited as one of the worst aircraft in all of World War 2. We first talk about how smaller countries build up their militaries in times of war and how the Brewster Buffalo was a popular export plane for countries like Britain and Finland. We then talk about Finland's strange journey in WW2, going from defending itself against the Soviet Union in the Winter War, to joining with Nazi Germany after Operation Barbarossa in the Continuation War, before then allying with the Soviet Union against Germany post-mid-1944 in the Lapland War. We also talk about how the Buffalo was incredibly effective against the Soviets, so much so that it was one of the most successful in the entire war, before then Finland attempted to build up their air forces not through more imports, but through copying their beloved Buffaloes and creating the Humu in 1944, nearly a decade after the Buffalo first flew. We conclude by talking about why the Humu was overall inferior to the Buffalo and why it ended up failing.