The German Luftwaffe reigned supreme in the early years of World War II, developing new combined-arms tactics to produce the Blitzkrieg (“Lightning War”) that quickly conquered Poland, the Low Countries, and France. However, in the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe failed to achieve supremacy over the British Royal Air Force, and once the American USAAF began extensive bombing campaigns against the Reich, the Luftwaffe was forced to develop new fighters—such as the Me 252 and He 163. With more than 200 images, including rare photographs, details the force’s growing pains, implementation of blitzkrieg, setbacks, forays into the desert and the Eastern front, and faltering grip over Russia, as well as the Western onslaught that finally ended it all. Key figures, such as Hitler himself, Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering, and many pilots and aces, appear.