War Heroes was the third official posthumous release of Jimi Hendrix' music . The three 'First Rays Of The New Rising Sun' tracks, that were left off 'The Cry Of Love' & 'Rainbow Bridge': Stepping Stone, Izabella & Beginnings are all here on side two. It was released by Reprise Records (USA & Canada), Barclay Records (France) & Polydor (Rest of the world) (in the UK they had taken over Track Records Hendrix portfolio) in 1972. Polydor also re-released it as part of an 11 x LP + 1 x double album limited edition boxed set (2625 040). Interestingly, the sleeve shows album number 2459 389 which is also etched on the vinyl, however, the centre label shows 2302-020. In the track listing, Stepping Stone is the last track on side 1.

The French Barclay releases (80467), had a different track listing. The medley called "Peter Gunn Catastrophe" on the original release is split into two separate tracks on the French LP. "Peter Gunn" is the Henry Mancini composition used as the theme music for the TV series Peter Gunn, and "Catastrophe" is Hendrix's light-hearted version of the song "Jealousy" recorded by Frankie Laine in late 1951.

War Heroes has been out of print in the US since the 1970's. When the Hendrix estate regained the rights to his music, they announced that it would be permanently withdrawn. Eight of its nine tracks have subsequently been released on one of their authorized, definitive CDs.