When 15 Japanese Falcons Attacked 4 Burma Banshees

It was May 17, 1944. Taking advantage of a brief spell of clear skies before the monsoon season set in, four P-40N fighter-bombers from the 89th Fighter Squadron, known as the famed Burma Banshees, flew across the India-Burma border to support Allied troops locked in a fierce battle with the Japanese Army.

In the middle of their bombing run, the formation was suddenly attacked by at least 15 Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (“Peregrine Falcon”) fighters. In the chaos, flight leader Lieutenant Philip Adair became separated from his three wingmen. Soon, several Japanese fighters closed in on him, determined to bring him down. Vastly outnumbered, the question became clear…how could these four friends possibly survive?

It’s the 17th of May 1944, and Lt. Phil Adair is in charge of a flight of Burma Banshees, four planes painted with screaming, sharp-toothed skulls. Their mission is to bomb Japanese ground targets. He and the other line up their attack. Adair releases his deadly payload, and the bomb hits its target. He pulls up at around 45 degrees and looks up to see Japanese planes. “Three flights of Zeroes, over 15 of them- they had us bracketed and had already started to peel off on us,” he later describes.

While Adair is an experienced pilot, his wingman, Thomas J. O’Connor, whom he affectionately calls “Little Okie,” doesn’t have the benefit of Adair’s experience. O’Connor immediately drops his bombs, but his tank is stuck with four enemy planes already closing on him.

Adair comes to the rescue of his wingman, but when he comes out on the other side, there’s no sign of Little Okie. He then spots a flight of four Zeros on the other side of the open clearing, heading towards him. He gets the leader in his sights, waits, and fires. He flies to the cloud to evade further pursuit. However, upon emerging into clear skies once again, the Japanese fighters are still around. He managed to take down two planes and shot at several others, not knowing if he had hit them or not.

At this stage, Adair is pretty shot up, and his fuel is running low. He knew he needed to get back to base. When he turned home to the north, he was horrified to see five more Japanese planes. Outnumbered and without an altitude advantage, all he could do was turn and run.

The Japanese planes catch up to him. Then, through all the chaos, he sees what could be salvation, albeit with a lace of danger. It’s a thick bank of clouds with a massive rock formation jutting through its surface. Adair weighs his options and dives towards the cover below. Somehow, he manages to get into the clouds, and with skill and some luck, he misses the rock and emerges on the other side, heading back north into the clear skies.

Adair scans the horizon, looking for any signs of his missing friends, and through the haze, a familiar red-nosed P-40 appears. He’s ecstatic to see O’Connor limping across the sky. While his plane’s belly tank is still attached, the fuselage is peppered with punctures, and O’Connor slumps into the cockpit, blood soaking his flight suit.

Through a red mist, O’Connor sees Adair’s plane and gestures at his dead instruments. Banking towards Sadia, they spot Roger’s battered P-40, wings and fuselage bearing bullet holes that mark all three aircraft. Adair spots that both of Roger’s tires are completely flat.

Adair signals he’s going to lead both planes to touch down. Guiding the two planes into a final approach, Adair pulls up at the last minute, circles above, and is relieved to see both his friends land safely. He then touches down himself. As the plane comes to a full stop, he spots that Martinez was already down and unscathed!

Rogers isn’t injured either, but his plane took 123 bullet hits. Adair then heads to O’Connor’s plane to see him terribly hurt. O’Connor survived that fateful day, but he died several years later from the wounds on his left side where the cannon shell went off and took the canopy away. Still, on that day, four men flew out and four men flew home to tell the tale.