On September 18, 1944, the crew of the B-24 “Jo” of the 489th Bomb Group joined 2,000 aircraft to parachute supplies to besieged Allied paratroopers during Operation Market Garden. In flight, the bomber’s number-three engine lost power. Near Groesbeek, Holland, “Jo” circled the congested drop zone three times before it could release supplies onto the glider-strewn landscape from 500-feet altitude. Two B-24s were shot down in front of “Jo.” Red and yellow incendiary and tracer rounds spurted from fixed German positions, riddling the aircraft with holes. The plane’s hydraulic system was then struck and the number-four engine was knocked out. The pilots miraculously gained altitude and eventually hobbled back across the North Sea to an emergency air strip at Woodbridge, England. There, “Jo” made a perilous landing with one tire blown to bits. The heavily damaged bomber was unsalvageable, but every man aboard survived the mission and the war.

Pilots John Predgen and John Homan received Distinguished Flying Crosses for their heroics and skill during this mission. Homan chronicled the September 18, 1944, mission in his 2024 memoir, Into the Cold Blue: My World War II Journeys with the Mighty Eighth Air Force, co-authored by Jared Frederick. Homan personally consulted artist Larry Selman to ensure the accuracy of the scene depicted in this vivid recreation of aerial combat.