Wildcat Aces of World War 2

Arguably the most important piston-engined single-seat fighter design ever to see service with the US Navy and Marine Corps, the aesthetically inelegant F4F Wildcat achieved much acclaim during its bloody frontline career. Thrown into combat at Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal, the handful of Wildcat units of the Navy and Marine Corps took on large numbers of fighters and bombers and came out victorious. On the European front, the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm also put the fighter to effective use from escort carriers, protecting Atlantic convoys from Luftwaffe attacks.

Barrett Tillman is a professional author and speaker with more than 40 nonfiction books as well as novels to his credit.

He holds seven awards for history and literature including the 1996 Tailhook Association Lifetime Achievement Award and third place in the US Naval Institute Prize in 2009. Tillman has appeared in more than a dozen documentaries including The History Channel's Dogfights.

Chris Davey has illustrated more than 70 titles for Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces and Combat Aircraft series since 1994. Based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, as one of the very last traditional airbrush artists in the business, he has become the company's illustrator of choice for both USAAF fighters and RAF subject matter, proving his undoubted skill when dealing with large aircraft subjects such as the Halifax, Sunderland, Lancaster, and Stirling.

Iain Wyllie was one of Britain's leading - and most prolific - aviation cover artists. A native of Northern Ireland, he trained as a naval draughtsman and became a full-time aviation artist in the late 1980s. He has been responsible for creating numerous cover artworks for Osprey Publishing's hugely successful Aircraft of the Aces and Combat Aircraft series since 1994. His artwork is synonymous with originality of subject, intricate detail and technical accuracy.

The late Keith Fretwell was a very skilled aviation artist. He illustrated numerous books in the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series.

John Weal is Osprey's primary Luftwaffe author and artist. He has written, illustrated and/or supplied artwork for several titles in the Aircraft of the Aces series. He owns one of the largest private collections of original German-language literature from World War 2, and his research is firmly based on this huge archive.