History
In 1939, Australia entered WWII when Britain declared war on Germany. She sent soldiers to fight in Europe, most notably Trobruk in North Africa before the war in the Pacific got underway. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces threatened her own coast. During the darkest days of the war, Australian coastal cities were attacked by Japanese air raids, and in some case submarines.

Australia was responsible for the naval defense of an area known as the Australian Station which embraced the mainland of Australia and islands to the north and east of the continent and the surrounding seas. It also extended westward from the coast for some 1500 miles into the Indian Ocean. There were attacks on shipping by both Germany and Japan within the Australian waters. Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen were crucial in the victories in New Guinea, and the invasion of Borneo at the end of the war. US forces staged through Australia on there way to battlefields in the South Pacific.