This is the account of machines of war pitted against each other and the combatants who operated them. Step onto the battlefield and immerse yourself in the experience of real historic combat. The bitterly contested aerial engagements between the Grumman F6F Hellcat and the Kawanishi N1K1/2 Shiden/Shiden-Kai, given the codename "George" by the Allies, in the closing months of World War II were battles fought between one of America's premier combat aircraft and the product of Japans efforts to introduce fighters that could match their opponent's qualitative superiority. The superb N1K1/2 Shiden/Shiden-Kai was a formidable fighter with 20mm cannon armament, a powerful engine and, thanks to its highly effective combat flaps, excellent maneuverability. Its opponent over Formosa, the Philippines, and Japan's Home Islands in the final months of the Pacific War was the ubiquitous F6F-3/5 Hellcat, the US Navy's most successful fighter of the campaign. It had been the premier fighter since late 1943, and virtually every US Navy fleet carrier in-theater embarked at least one squadron equipped with Hellcats in 1944-45. Book jacket.