Michael Sargent Martin

Steel Fortress: the Memoir of an American Airman in Europe, 1944 Michael Sargent Martin

Steel Fortress is a story of survival, about a flyboy aboard a B-17 bomber who is catapulted into the extraordinary experience of flying the "heavies" in the never to be replicated arena of World War II air combat. He flies the gauntlet of Germany's defensive network in 1944, battling the demons of war in the European Theater and also in his mind. It is a commentary on the totality of the human experience of war, from the brutal realities of combat to the internal battle that goes on within each individual survivor.

On a cold February morning in 1944, Harold leaves his new bride at an Iowa train platform and embarks on a stark and riveting journey, where camaraderie is the key to survival, and loss is the lesson learned. Heroism combined with humanism drives this compelling saga of the human spirit at its most triumphant and most vulnerable. Steel Fortress joins ranks with the most poignant of commentaries on war; it is a story for the ages, and evidence of the universal spirit of man.