A detailed and fully illustrated look at aerial combat in the closing year of WWII across all theaters of conflict.The final year of World War II witnessed the decline of the piston-engine fighter and the beginning of the jet age. Taking to the skies were tried-and-true fighters, improved versions of old aircraft, and newly developed jets, including prototypes that flew for the first time just before the war ended. In Air Combat 1945, historian Donald Nijboer examines these dynamic aircraft through hundreds of wartime photographs depicting operations across Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific. This volume covers American Mustangs, Thunderbolts, and Shooting Stars; British Tempests, Spitfires, and Gloster Meteors; German Fw 190s, Bf 109Ks, and Messerschmitt Me 262s; Japanese Ki 100s, Raidens, and Tojos; and many more.