HMAS Perth (D29)

05°51′42″S 106°7′52″E / 5.86167°S 106.13111°E / -5.86167; 106.13111

Perth
History
United Kingdom
Name	Amphion
Namesake	Amphion
Builder	HM Dockyard, Portsmouth
Laid down	26 June 1933
Launched	27 July 1934
Commissioned	15 June 1936
Identification	Pennant number: I29
Fate	Sold to Royal Australian Navy, June 1939
Australia
Name	Perth
Namesake	City of Perth, Western Australia
Acquired	1939
Commissioned	29 June 1939
Identification	Pennant number: D29
Motto	Floreat (Latin: "Let it flourish")
Honours and awards	Battle honours: Atlantic 1939 Malta Convoys 1941 Matapan 1941 Greece 1941 Crete 1941 Mediterranean 1941 Pacific 1941–42 Sunda Strait 1942
Fate	Sunk during the Battle of Sunda Strait, 1 March 1942
General characteristics (as completed)
Class and type	Modified Leander-class light cruiser
Displacement	7,040 long tons (7,150 t) (standard)
Length	562 ft 4 in (171.4 m) (o/a) 530 ft (161.5 m) (p/p)
Beam	56 ft 8 in (17.3 m)
Draught	19 ft 5 in (5.9 m)
Installed power	4 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers 72,000 shp (54,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 shafts; 4 × geared steam turbines
Speed	32.5 kn (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement	622 (36 officers, 586 ratings)
Armament	4 × twin BL 6 in (152 mm) guns 4 × single QF 4 in (102 mm) guns 3 × quadruple 0.5 in (12.7 mm) AA machineguns 2 × quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Waterline belt: 3 in (76 mm) Magazine: 2–3.5 in (51–89 mm) Deck: 1.125 in (29 mm) Gun turrets: 1 in (25 mm)

HMAS Perth was one of three modified Leander-class light cruisers used by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during the early part of World War II. She was built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the mid-1930s and was commissioned as HMS Amphion in 1936. The ship spent the next several years as flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Africa before she was transferred to the RAN in 1939 and renamed as HMAS Perth.

At the start of World War II in September, the ship patrolled the Western Atlantic and the Caribbean in search of German shipping and escorting convoys for six months before she was ordered home in early 1940. The ship continued the same types of duties in Australian waters before she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet at the end of 1940. Perth then helped to escort numerous convoys to Malta in early 1941 and played a minor role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March. She escorted convoys to Greece and Crete and helped to evacuate Allied troops from both places in the face of the victorious Axis forces. The ship was badly damaged by Axis aircraft in May during the evacuation of Crete.

After repairs were completed in June, Perth provided naval gunfire support to Allied forces ashore during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign and bombarded Vichy French targets. She returned to Australia in mid-1941 and was tasked with the same sorts of missions as she had been performing at the beginning of the war. The ship continued to perform these tasks after the start of the Pacific War in December until she was transferred to the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command in February 1942 to help defend the Dutch East Indies against the Japanese. Perth was not damaged during the Battle of the Java Sea, but was torpedoed and sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Sunda Strait immediately afterwards.

Over half her crew was killed in the battle and only about two-thirds of the survivors survived captivity to return home after the war. The ship's wreck was discovered in 1967 and was essentially intact; by 2013 the wreck had been partially stripped by unauthorised Indonesian marine salvagers and was in even worse condition four years later.