The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was the most widely produced American fighter aircraft of the Second World War and played a central role in providing air support for the Allied landing operations in Normandy from June 1944 onward. As a fighter-bomber, the P-47 carried out low-level attacks on German supply lines, troop movements, and positions behind the front lines, thereby enabling Allied ground forces to advance progressively. Jack Lieb captured this scene in color at one of the hastily established airfields in the invasion zone—while nearly all other contemporary photographs of such aircraft are in black and white.