This is a picture of the air war in the European Theatre of WWII the way the pilots saw it, from the cockpit, from the waist gun slots, from P-51s chasing Bf-109s and from B-17s struggling to stay in formation and get home in one piece.

It is not a romantic picture, but neither was the war. It is, however, a vivid picture, told one flight at a time, one plane at a time, one day at at time, one personal triumph or tragedy at a time, for this is indeed the way wars are fought. Just ask any airman who was there. No attempt has been made to trace the development of the Army Air Corps from an empty shell to 300,000 aircraft - nor has any effort been made to track the chronology of the air campaigns between 1939 and 1945.

This book spans the period between the first 8th Air Force mission in July, 1942 and the last in May of 1945. It begins with the bomber streams, continues with air-to-air dogfighting and ends with the dramatic use of fighters in the air-to-ground role. The images assembled here are at once dramatic, stunning and oftentimes heartbreaking. Many have never been published before. They tell a story about air war that words alone could not convey.