Deliveries of Brewster Bermudas to the
Royal Air Force commenced in July 1942. The RAF judged that the type was unsuitable for combat, and most of the Bermudas delivered to the service were converted to
target tugs. Five of the aircraft were transferred to the
Fleet Air Arm for assessment – four as
dive bombers and one as a target tug. The USAAF received 108 Bermudas, which it called the A-34. The type was considered unsuitable even for training purposes and was used only as
"hacks". As the aircraft broke down they were either abandoned or used as targets for artillery training. The A-34s were withdrawn from service in 1944. Deliveries to the US Navy took place during 1943 and 1944. The service received 80 SB2A-2s and 60 SB2A-3s; the latter variant was fitted with
folding wings and an
arrester hook to enable them to operate from aircraft carriers. The US Navy also regarded the SB2A as unsuitable for combat and training purposes, and mainly used its aircraft as target tugs and for ground maintenance training. These aircraft were instead assigned by the US Navy to the
United States Marine Corps, and delivered with Dutch markings in the cockpits. As the SB2A-4, the Marines used some of these aircraft to establish their first
night fighter squadron
VMF(N)-531. Due to the poor performance of the SB2A, many of the completed aircraft were scrapped by the RAF and US Navy without having been flown operationally. Historians regard the SB2A as a failure. David Donald has labelled it "one of the worst aircraft of World War II". Similarly, the
Pima Air & Space Museum website states that the type was "perhaps the least successful Allied aircraft of World War II". The
National Naval Aviation Museum website also notes that "overweight, underpowered, and lacking maneuverability, the Brewster SB2A Buccaneer was a classic failure". ==Variants==