My father, LT Philip Adair, would strike up a friendship with John Hugelmeyer. Before dad went overseas John suggested dad take a Baldina Pocket reflex camera with him to photograph his time in Burma. Dad liked the Baldina because it would fit in his flight jacket and he could pull it out at take photos while he was flying.
Hugelmeyer was attached to 1ST Fighter Command as the official photographer. Historically that is important because this would be the first fighter unit being formed for WWII and Huglemyer would be the first official photographer.
I first found these photographs about fifteen years ago, hidden under a bed in a spare bedroom in my parents house. They were large, about 18 inches by 20 inches and there was no way to scan them in as a single image. I decided to have another look at them a few days ago and I noticed that the first two were signed to my father by Sgt J. Hugelmeyer. The third one, the unsigned P47 photo had a stamp indicating it is also a John Hugelmeyer photo. I’ve included a copy of the back below. The fourth photograph is a photo of Dick Nellis who was my father’s first bunk mate. He was tragically lost when he piloted his flaming P47 out to sea over Long Island. They were very good friends and no doubt, that’s why Huglemyer gave this large print to my father.
Recent technlogy, basically a working Adobe PhotoShop Merge, allowed me to scan these in small pieces and merge them togther. My goal is to make these so you can download the full size image. I am still working on figuring out how to get this SW to allow that Right now it is down sizing them. Stay tuned though. They are wonderful photos.
