My late father-in-law was a waist gunner (DFC) in a 24. He said that on a mission that caused the shutdown of an engine, they fell back out of formation. After a short while they spotted a 17 formation coming back from the same mission. His skipper joined their flight when he realized that his 24 running on 3 engines could keep up with the 17s on 4.
Ol' Pops never talked a great deal about actual combat, too many bad memories (such as, seeing an entire bomber explode from flak, no chutes), but loved that "Spirit of 77", it never failed to get him back safe.
Your father in law was fortunate to make it back in a B-24. The German's didn't call them flying coffins for nothing. Though the 24 could outperform a 17 in just about every category save one and that was survivability. BTW the B17 accounted for more kills of enemy aircraft than any other ally plane during WWII.