The Return of Sgt. Hawk by Patrick Clay was originally published by Leisure Books in 1980. It has been just been reissued by Rough Edges Press. The novel starts soon after a landing in the Philippines by Hawk’s Marine regiment. They are a lone Marine regiment amide army troops on the island of Lamare. My guess is “Lamare” is a stand in for Lyete.

The Marines take a town and Hawk becomes friendly with an American girl and her mother. The Japanese counterattack and the U.S. lines fall back. Hawk is worried about the girl and her family while the U.S. forces stall. Hawk’s company is sent to a salient where they discover first dumps of American supplies and then find gold bars. An artillery barrage obliterates two of the Marine platoons. Hawk leads his platoon into Japanese lines to as it appears the Army commander, Gen. Kravanart is out to kill them. He is. The finding of the gold and American supplies has sealed their death warrant. Kravanart even sends out a recon squad to kill Sgt. Hawk.

Hawk finds out from Filipinos that the Japanese commander on Lamare has sold the American women to a pirate who in turn has sold them to a backwards tribe in the Sulu Sea. Hawk gets a boat and he and his remaining Marines are out on a rescue mission. In this novel, you find that Hawk is blond with brilliant blue eyes.

The recon squad executes some wounded Japanese but one escapes. The Japanese commander thinks Hawk and his Marines did it. Things keep getting deeper for Hawk.

The novel gets wilder with a rescue mission by Hawk and his men in an old castle. There is a hint of the supernatural going on also.

The remnants of the Army recon squad and also a couple thousand Japanese. There is a wild three way climax of action of the Marines vs. Army vs. Japanese with Hawk trying to get the women and his remaining men off the island. Hawk also gets payback once he returns to Lamare.

The Return of Sgt. Hawk is a cross between The Thin Red Line and an adventure from a mid-1930s issue of Thrilling Adventures magazine. This is one wild novel. Don’t pass it up.