In early 1942 Australia lay weak and unprepared as an unprecedented succession of victories saw the rampant Japanese Imperial Army and Navy sweep southwards. The Battle for Australia had begun.

It was a battle that would be fought in Malaya, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Timor and Ambon, and across New Guinea and Papua, at Rabaul, Port Moresby, Kokoda, Milne Bay and Lae. It quickly spread to the skies over northern Australia and to the seas around and near Australia, including the Coral Sea.

John Curtin was the new leader of Australia at this moment of greatest peril. As Curtin rallied the country to a stance of total war, his desperate calls for aid from both Britain – against the obstructiveness of Winston Churchill, who described the fight against Japan as the ‘lesser war’ – and the United States, produced consequences that would forever change the balance of Australia’s strategic relationships.

Yet Curtin was also a man mentally and physically on the brink of breakdown at this most crucial time.

The Battle for Australia, researched in Australia, Britain and Japan, is a compelling and revealing narrative history of those dangerous days. pp. 528 Illustrated #0217