At 02.00hrs, 6 June 1944, dawn was already rising with double British summer time. The rumble of 48 Pratt & Whitney R-2800s reverberated across the quiet English countryside that surrounded the former RAF station at Beaulieu, between Southampton and Bournemouth, which was now home to the 9th Air Force's 365th Fighter Group - also known as the 'Hell Hawks'. On the taxiway, the big Republic P-47s, each resplendent in the black-and-white identification stripes hurriedly applied with mops and brooms by the groundcrews two nights before, 'S-turned' under their heavy loads of two 5001b bombs on the wing shackles and a 110-gallon drop tank on the centreline mount as they taxied toward the runway in the growing dawn light.
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