The German aircraft shown dogfighting with Major Caldwell's P-47 Thunderbolt squadron and shooting him and his wingman down are Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers, which were effective against ground targets where they had effective fighter escort earlier in the war such as on the Mediterranean and Russian Fronts. They were unable to defend themselves from Allied fighters themselves, let alone attack Allied fighters, and were almost completely withdrawn from service on the Germans' Western Front after being almost totally annihilated during the Battle of Britain in 1940, four years before the Allied invasion of France.