LIEUTENANT ADAIR AND LULU BELLE (10TH AIR FORCE)

LIEUTENANT ADAIR AND LULU BELLE: (10TH AIR FORCE)

1st. Lieutenant Philip Adair of the 80th Fighter Group’s 89th Fighter Squadron is caught by a photographer from “Life” magazine while stepping down from his Curtiss P-40N Warhawk fighter, “Lulu Belle.”
The large, white “Skull” that was the dramatic unit marking of the 80th Fighter Group, the “Burma Banshees” is seen dominating Lulu Belle’s nose.

At the time the photograph was taken, Adair’s 89th Fighter Squadron was flying from Nagaghuli in Eastern India’s Assam Valley with the primary mission of defending the Western End of the “Hump” Airlift.

On December 13, 1943, Adair was the first pilot from the 80th Fighter Group to make contact with a large force of 24 Mitsubishi Ki-21 bombers and 35 Nakajima Ki-43 fighters, that was attacking the CNAC “Hump” Airlift airfield at Dinjan. Alone, but determined to disrupt the Japanese raid, Lt. Adair, immediately attacked the Japanese force, and in the combat that followed, was officially credited with destroying one Ki-43 “Oscar” and damaging one Ki-21 “Sally” bomber and two more Ki-43 “Oscar” fighters.