Geoffrey Fisken NZ Farmer turn pilot The Buffalos That Bled: How a "Flying Coffin" Defied the Rising Sun The Brewster Buffalo was a flying coffin—slow, underpowered, and outclassed. Yet against the vaunted Zero, the young pilots of the RAF and RAAF fighting over Malaya did the impossible. They fought back. The Sinking of Force Z At 11:00 on 10 December 1941, a Japanese flight of 88 bombers, comprised of the long-range Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" and G4M "Betty" models, located the pride of the British Eastern Fleet  . Within hours, the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were at the bottom of the South China Sea  . The myth of British naval invincibility ended with 840 sailors. The Japanese lost  just four aircraft  in the attack  . The Battle of Malaya was already lost before it began. "Outclassed and Outnumbered" British and Commonwealth pilots were flying the Brewster Buffalo—a plane already deemed "below par" for service in the UK but s...