SI 81–896

This book is dedicated to Donald S. Lopez* and those aircrew, ground crew, and engineers who supported the air war against the Axis tyrannies that threatened freedom in the terrifyingly tumultuous years from 1939 to 1945. The images presented here are a testament to the skill and fortitude of these extraordinary people and their opponents.

*Lieutenant Colonel Lopez (USAF, Ret.) was an ace with the Twenty-third Fighter Group, Fourteenth Air Force in China and served as deputy director of the National Air and Space Museum until his passing in 2008. He is sorely missed.