Lieutenant-General Brereton was a long service aviator in the United States Air Force even before the advent of the Second World War, Tough and aggressive he would lead his men and air groups through the Pacific, North Africa and Europe, and saw action in more theatres than any other senior commander. Described by one of his fellow US generals "a cocky, aggressive, intelligent, experienced, pretty damn able commander.", he is a somewhat controversial character. He was in command during four of the most controversial, from an Air Force perspective, episodes of the entire war; the initial destruction of the American aerial assets in the Philippines 1941, the bombing of the oilfields in Ploesti 1943, the flattening of the German defences in Normandy 1944, and the failed attempt to capture bridges across the Rhine by airdrop 1944. His diary is very readable, enlightening and very relevant to the US Air Force effort in all of the major theaters across World War II.