Johnnie Johnson and Laddie Lucas both rose from modest and quite separate beginnings to distinguished leadership of fighting formations in the European and Mediterranean theatres of war. As fighter pilots and leaders of various commands and in the Tactical Air Force in Europe, each was at the forefront of defensive and offensive operations for much of the war. As such, they had personal contact with many of the senior allied commanders and their well-publicized subordinates, as well as some of the outstanding combat leaders of the day, British and American, Commonwealth and European. In this personal narrative, the authors expose the triumphs which contributed to victory, and the reasons for them. They also reveal the mistakes, the failures, the disasters and the misjudgements which were an inevitable part of the pressures of an air force at war. They deal too with the impact of losses, with moving references and character studies of some of their celebrated comrades who were also friends.