It’s December 13th, 1943 in the skies over Assam and 2nd Lt Philip R. Adair
is climbing quickly after being told to scramble.
He spots what looks like 4 enemy planes and goes in close in his beloved Lulubelle.
It’s the start of an incredible engagement that will see Adair face insurmountable odds.
As Adair gets closer he can see it’s not 4 planes but 4 flights of 6 bombers each
and they’re being escorted by fighters above and below them!
The other P-40s from the Burma Banshees are still taking off, but Adair can’t wait around,
as he realizes that over 60 Japanese planes
are heading straight for his home base and the US complex there, including the hospitals.
One man against that many planes means almost certain death.
But he pushes that thought to the back of his mind
and puts the throttle to full in Lulubelle and determinedly heads straight for the enemy.
The following is part of a voice recording by Adair recalling the events on that day…
"I called up control and said: 'Look...
They're gonna be releasing their bombs pretty quick and I don't know if I can do much of anything or not.
I'm gonna do the best I can to mess up their attack."
The bombers were the threat and he knew that if he took one shot at the fighter he would lose the advantage of surprise;
if the attack was to stand any chance of success, it had to go against the bombers first.
He decided to come in from high above on the left, trying to get some shots into the lead flight at maximum range.
"I started firing pretty long range out because I knew all I could do was fire enough tracers across the front of them
to kind of shake things up a little bit.
And I could see that as soon as I started shooting they got a little nervous because
the bombers were bouncing up and down and I wasn’t paying attention to fighters at that time.
So almost before I knew what was happening I was around behind the last flight
and picked up the last bomber in there and went after his left engine."
He could see hits on the engine and what looked like fire coming out of the bomber,
but he overtook so quickly that he couldn't really tell what was going on.
At this point the Zeros were about to attack.
But Adair had an escape maneuver at the ready.
Adair pushes the stick full forward into the left corner, and into a negative G,
out-side roll, and a high speed dive.
Eventually, he pulls out and looks around.
Thankfully, the Zeros were going back to defending the bomber formation.
While his attack rattled the bomber crews, the bombers completed their mission and released their bombs.
The bomb pattern fell short and off to the side of the target area.
Adair later said that even though some thought his attack contributed to the poor bombing by the Japanese,
he doubted that he had made that much of an impact...
He now had another choice. Should he head for home?
He’d faced insurmountable odds and gotten out alive… But he couldn’t let it go...
It worked once.
He was sure he could do it again.
Climbing he got above and behind the formation.
He starts another run.
"They looked like nobody was paying attention to me until I started getting closer to the bombers
And then it looked like that every damned Zero in the sky was coming for me.
And I think, well... There's no way in the world I'm gonna get close to the bombers again.
I'll just try to pick off a fighter or two - so I picked out the top one and tried to get a shot at him.
But he knew I was there and about the time I got in range
they made it real sharp turning - he was out of my range, out of my sight real quick.
So I just picked the next one and he was a little more stupid.
So he waited until I got in pretty close, and he had just started turning about the time I started shooting at him.
Then right away I saw his left gear drop and it looked like his engine was on fire, and he went into a spiral.
So I pulled off the side to get away from there and watched him.
And he crashed in the jungle, a short distance from there.
I climbed back up again and I thought: 'Well, what the hell?! I might as well have another shot at the bombers.
What a stupid jerk!
So here I go against the bombers again.
And before I could get in range - there were Zeros from the left, Zeros from the right. I said:
'Well I better get into my escape maneuver because I'm not going to get a shot at anybody.'
So as I rolled over I could look down and see a Zero coming straight up at me.
And right away I knew I was in trouble because he had a dead-bead on where I was going.
I couldn't get out of the way. Then 'wham wham wham!'. It sounded like a bunch of gravel."
Adair realizes that full stick forward did not seem to be getting him out of the line of fire.
He grabs the trim crank and sets it to full nose down position
giving him just a bit more additional forward angle.
Tracers whizz by and Lulubelle is hit!
There's an explosion behind the cockpit and fire comes shooting forward around both sides of the armor plate.
Fortunately, in the high speed dive the fire goes out.
Adair holds the dive with the ground rushing to meet him.
As late as he dares leave it he tries to pull out.
There’s something wrong.
The jungle gets closer and closer.
It seems with the trim in full forward position the cable has been shot through
and getting the plane level is a colossal effort.
He yanks back on the throttle, with both hands on the stick, the jungle rushing towards him.
He's finally able to get the nose up, and into the sky.
With a prayer of thanks and the Zeros far behind him he heads for home.
But it quickly becomes apparent that his troubles are not yet done.
"I got a little ways and realized that I was going to have a problem.
Because it was very hard to hold that nose up above the horizon.
Even using both hands!
And I've tried to get to the seat belt around the stick. But it wasn't long enough.
And I kept losing altitude as long as I was flying right side up.
And about this time I see another airplane that is going in the opposite direction from me.
And he's about a quarter mile off to my left.
And I couldn't tell what it was until he got close enough
and it was a Zero and he was smoking like a devil.
And looked like he was losing altitude and it must have been one of the ones that I hit somewhere earlier.
So I watched him and I'm sure he was watching me.
I went by him on the right and he just kept going.
And I thought “Oh, what the hell?!”
So I hauled it around and came screaming up his rear end,
get a dead bead on him, squezzed the trigger, and all I could hear was the pneumatic system
recharging the guns and there wasn't any ammunition left.
So I went screaming by him and they pulled over and started shooting at me.
But he didn't hit me
and I got out of there and headed on back."
Making his escape from the Zero, Adair realized that he was around 100 miles from home.
The plane kept pulling down, so he called control with his position.
He told them he was going to bail out because he couldn't keep the plane out of the jungle.
He kept on nursing the plane as every 100 yards in the jungle could be as much as 2 days walking!
He later said: "And then I got smart.
I'll just turn it upside down and see what happens
So I flipped over upside down and it ran pretty good a little while.
And it climbed and I got quite a bit altitude.
Then the engine started cutting out again, so I flip it back right side up. And it comes back and starts running smooth.
He lost count of how many times he went through this same maneuver, but eventually he made it back to his airbase.
Upon final approach and upside down he released the landing gear.
Flipping the plane over at the last minute Lulubelle’s white rimmed wheels kissed the runway and she landed safely.
It was Adair's 44th mission.
He later said:
“For me, mission number 44 was my most exciting.
I don't know if I could stand that much excitement again, but after that, I was convinced that number 44 was my
lucky number, it was also the number painted on the side of Lulubelle.
Lt Adair who challenged 64 Japanese planes received the Silver Star for this action.
We would very much like to thank Robin and Luke Adair,
Son and Grandson of retured Col Philip Adair for their very kind help in this script
and for giving us permission to use the voice and images in this film.
They have an excellent website, burmabanshees.com
where you can see some incredible photos from the men who were there.
In honor of the Burma Banshees we've made this tribute emblazoned on 100% black cotton.
Wear the legend and grab it before it flies out by clicking on the link in the description.
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