When the Allies began to push inland, they had fighter cover on call. Orbiting at 3,500 feet, Thunderbolts swooped down to rake German trucks, trains and troops columns with their eight .50-caliber Brownings. A three-second burst put 23 pounds of bullets into the target–75 two-ounce slugs, lethal from four miles away. Sheer recoil typically slowed the Jug 20 to 30 mph. For heavier game–the Panther, Tiger and King Tiger tanks infesting the hedgerow country–there were underwing bazookas and rail-launched 5-inch rockets.

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Without control of the air, German troops were not free to move on the ground; photos taken in France in the summer of 1944 show them anxiously scanning the skies for attackers. For citizens of Germany, the drone of heavy bombers over their cities was a terrifying sound, but for Wehrmacht troops opposing the D-Day landings and subsequent invasion it was the roar of Allied fighters like the P-47 Thunderbolt–coming in at treetop level with guns and rockets ablaze–that struck fear in their hearts.

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