Aces: True Stories of Victory and Valor in the Skies of World War II

Aces is a celebration of the bold fighter pilots who earned the accolade and joined the ranks of flying aces during World War II aviation combat.

Since World War I, fighter pilots have been seen as a breed apart, fighting their battles high above the mud and muck of the battlefields—"knights of the air." During World War II, tens of thousands of aircraft engaged in deadly dogfights in the skies over Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific. In this hellish battle for survival, hundreds of pilots claimed five or more victories to become aces. These are their stories.

This informative history book includes a wealth of biographies of WWII's most daring aerial knights. Each major country in the war (and some of the minor ones) had Aces. You can learn about where they came from, who they fought for, who they were outside the cockpit, and see their brave young faces that were ready for whatever the war threw at them. Packed with rare historical photos as well as modern images to see how their work impacted history, Aces paints a full picture of these featured flyers.

Among aviation warfare, the title of "ace" sets some above the rest. While it technically marks the pilots as having five enemy kills in aerial combat, it means a lot more than that in military circles. On the battlefield, they were enemies, diametrically opposed, but when they were firmly planted on the ground, they were respected colleagues.