Question: What war did the F8F first see combat in?
Answer, from Wikipedia: "The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam)."
My Vietnam War collection of stamps, covers, and collateral items includes this original photo of a Bearcat, apparently taking during the First Indochina War:
The rubber stamp impression on the back reads:
Etablissement Cinématographique et Photographique des Armees/ Fort D'Divry — 94200 Divry-sur-Seine, France / Reproduction autorisée / mention obligatoire : E.C.P.-Armeés
The aircraft looks to have had a rather rough life! Again, according to Wikipedia:
The first combat for the F8F Bearcat was during the French Indochina War (1946–1954) when nearly 200 Bearcats were delivered to the French forces in 1951.* When the war ended in 1954, 28 surviving Bearcats were supplied to the Republic of Vietnam Air Forceand entered service in 1956. The Vietnamese Bearcats were retired in 1960, replaced with Douglas A-1 Skyraiders and North American T-28 Trojans as the Vietnam War (1957–1975) continued. F8Fs were also supplied to Thailand during the same time period.
Bob
* The U.S. supplied most of the war matériel France used in its attacks against the Viet Minh. American military pilots, wearing civilian clothing and flying unmarked American C-119 Boxcars, flew many supply missions over the battleground at Dien Bien Phu, the decisive battle that ended French colonialism in Southeast Asia.
On the bench: A diorama to illustrate the crash of a Beech T-34B Mentor which I survived in 1962 (I'm using Minicraft's 1/48 model of the Mentor), and a Pegasus model of the submarine Nautilus of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas fame.