2017 $1 A War Close To Home Uncirculated 4 Coin SetAustralia spent the first years of the Second World War fighting alongside British forces in Europe, North Africa and in the Mediterranean. However, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and subsequent advances throughout the Asia Pacific region brought the war closer to home. The fall of Singapore, bombing of Darwin and submarine attacks in Sydney Harbour in 1942 instilled fears that the Australian mainland faced a Japanese invasion.