Iwo, 26 Charlie: A Novel (P. T. Deutermann WWII Novels)
It’s February 1945, and the savage battle for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima is about to transform into a hellscape for tens of thousands of U.S. Marines. And no other World War II novelist can tell it better than P.T. Deutermann.
Aboard the U.S.S. Nevada just offshore of Iwo Jima, U.S. Navy gunnery liaison officer Lieutenant Lee Bishop receives coordinates from land-based “spotters” to target Japanese positions with the ship’s big guns. As the Marines land on Iwo’s beaches, they little realize the Japanese forces have tunneled deep into the island and are prepared to fight to the death. The Marines suffer horrific casualties that also include more than two dozen highly-skilled spotters who know how to “talk”—the term for the arcane knowledge trained officers possess to call in effective fire missions. Bishop volunteers to assist the Marines on the island and thus begins his Iwo Jima nightmare, one that only Deutermann can imagine in such realistic, gruesome detail.
Bishop is assisted by three Marines known as Goon, Twitch, and Monster. Together, this unlikely foursome delves deep behind enemy lines with only rifles, knives, and the all-important battery-operated radio to call fire down upon the Japanese. Using the call sign “Iwo, 2-6 Charlie,” Bishop and company run a gauntlet of obstacles above and below ground to provide the coordinates needed for maximum damage. This is perhaps Deutermann’s most graphic war novel yet, in a long list of impressively authentic stories of the war’s most iconic Pacific battles. The ways men can die—and do—are not for the fainthearted reader.
Iwo, 26 Charlie is high-octane adventure with indelible characters who stay with you. Deutermann reminds readers of the blood-soaked sacrifice of U.S. forces on Iwo Jima while also telling one whopper of a war story.
