Battle for the North — Barry Smith

Battle for the North is the second in The Kimberley Trilogy of Australian adventure novels which span the first, second and, yet to come, third world war. It reunites the heroes and heroines of For Freedom's Cause -Dan, Charlie, Elspeth Liza and Alice, in frustrating Japanese espionage plots and raids into northern Australia during World War 2. The action takes place in the Kimberley wilderness and celebrates the daring and heroism of mounted North Australian Observer Unit patrols, nicknamed the 'Nackeroos' or 'Curtin's Cowboys.' Following on the bombing of Darwin and Broome, Japanese marine commandos land on the Kimberley coast to establish a foothold and deny the US and Australian Navies a secure re-fuelling and supply base. In the absence of Australia's regular forces in the Middle East and Singapore, all that stands between them and success is Dan Bevan's and Charlie Elliott's part-time observer patrols, which battle a Japanese special forces unit from Broome to their Kalumburu base and join the fight to push the enemy back into the sea. Flight Captain Daniel Bevan returns from the Battle of Britain to join the air war over northern Australia and whilst Dan and Charlie conduct their guerrilla campaign in the bush, their wives and Lady Elspeth interrupt their war work in Darwin to thwart black market thugs and hunt down a murderous Spy.