Strana 61
42-105128, P-40N-5, 2Lt. Philip R. Adair, 89th FS, 80th FG, Nagaghuli, India, early 1944
42-105116, P-40N-5, Capt. Gilmer L. Snipes, 45th FS, 15th FG, Nanumea, December 1943
Philip Reed Adair enlisted in military flight
training after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
He served with the 80th FG for eighteen months
in 1943 and 1944 and flew 139 combat missions.
The most remarkable of these took place on
December 13, 1943, when he fought alone
against a formation of 24 Japanese bombers and
40 fighters. He was credited with one confirmed
kill and three other aircraft as damaged, but
most importantly, he managed to break up the
enemy formation and disrupt the bombing of
his own base. He himself was hit several times
in this combat and received the Silver Star for
his bravery. During this mission, he flew his
first Lulu Belle, which was a P-40N-1 Warhawk.
The second aircraft of the same name, shown
here, was already a P-40N-5 version. Adair
received it in early 1944 and on May 17, again
fighting against superior forces, he shot down
two Oscars. In June 1944, he and the entire
group began retraining on Thunderbolts, but he
did not achieve any further kills. The 80th FG
was called the Burma Banshees, and most of its
aircraft were decorated with a skull on the nose.
None of them were the same, although they
sometimes differed only in details. The primary
role of the group was to provide air cover for
bases involved in air supply operations to units
in China via the Himalayas (Hump operations).
Later, from October 1943, the group was tasked
with providing air support to units in northern
Burma. Philip Adair died at the age of 97 on May
13, 2017.
Although the 15th FG was based in the Hawaiian
Islands, it kept sending its squadrons to various
locations in the central and southern Pacific.
One of these was Baker Atoll, where the 45th
FS was sent in September 1943, before moving
on to Abemama Island and then Makin in the fall
of 1943, from where it carried out raids against
bases on the Julait and Mili atolls until March
1944. The transfer of the 45th FS Warhawks to
Baker in mid-September 1943 took the Japanese
by surprise, and they paid for it with the loss of
an H8K Emily flying boat. On October 23, 1943,
a pair of P-40s was guided to an aircraft of this
type and sent it into the waves of the Pacific.
The kill was credited to Capt. Gilmer L. Snipes,
who had 2nd Lt. R. Hendrickson as his wingman.
It was the first kill of 45th FS in the war.
In April 1944, “Buck” Snipes took command of
the squadron and, after rearming with Mustangs,
participated in the deployment of the 15th FG
from Iwo Jima, including three VLR missions
over Japan. During the first of these, on April
7, 1945, he was credited with shooting down
a Ki-44 Tojo. Because the standard P-40 color
scheme did not serve its purpose on the coral
atolls, the technical staff mixed a sand color
that matched the local conditions before the
squadron moved to Baker Atoll. The undersides
were repainted with a light blue color mixed
from insignia blue and white. The stencils were
mostly masked during repainting and therefore
have the original background.
KITS 11/2025
INFO Eduard
61
November 2025