Examines the successes and failures of the U.S. ArmyAir Forces in North Africa in World War II. Portrays this effort as a coming-of-age marker for a military branch struggling to define its proper identity and role in the defense establishment, even as it coped with the demands of combined arms and coalition warfare.

In the summer of 1942, Axis forces controlled almost the entire southern shore of the Mediterranean. Less than a year later, they had been swept from the African continent - thanks in no small part to efforts of the fledgling US Army Air Force. Going beyond the spare analysis of North African air operations in previous accounts, Christopher Rein shows how American fighter planes and heavy bombers, employed in almost exclusively tactical and operational roles, played a pivotal role in the Alliance's successful ground campaigns.