Highly respected Osprey author William N ‘Bill’ Hess passed away on 4 September 2019.  A veteran of nearly seven years’ service in the US Army Air Force and US Air Force, he flew as an aerial gunner in B-17 Flying Fortresses with the Fifteenth Air Force and chalked up 16 missions before his aircraft fell to enemy flak. He spent the rest of the war as a PoW. Hess wrote more than 25 books (including four for Osprey) on World War 2 aircraft and aviators and was an Honorary and Official Historian of the American Fighter Aces’ Association, as well as a member of the Air Forces Association and American Ex-Prisoners of War. A terrific writer and generous mentor to many would-be authors, Bill will be sadly missed by all those who knew him, or read his many fine books.