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.
Design and description
The design of the Leander-class cruisers was adapted for the 1932–1933 Naval Programme to separate their propulsion machinery arranged into separate units. This was intended to improve their survivability as each unit of paired boilers and steam turbines could operate independently and a single hit could not immobilise the ship.Friedman, British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After, p. 163; Raven & Roberts, British Cruisers of World War Two, p. 156 As built Amphion had an overall length of ,Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 92 a length between perpendiculars of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load.Friedman, British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After, p. 399 The ship displaced at standard load and at deep load. This gave her a metacentric height of at deep load.Raven & Roberts, British Cruisers of World War Two, pp. 156, 416 Her crew numbered 36 officers and 586 ratings.
The modified Leanders were powered by four Parsons geared turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by four Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The turbines, rated at , were intended to give the ships a maximum speed of The unit system necessarily meant that each machinery unit had its own funnel.Frame, HMAS Sydney, p. 15 The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of at .Raven & Roberts, British Cruisers of World War Two, p. 416
Armament and protection
The main battery of the Modified Leander class consisted of eight BL Mk XXIII guns arranged in two pairs of superfiring twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament consisted of four QF Mk V guns in open single mounts abreast the aft funnel. For short-range air defence, the ship was fitted with three quadruple mounts for Vickers AA machineguns. They were also armed with eight torpedo tubes in two above-water quadruple mounts, one on each broadside.Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 93
Most of the armour protecting parts of the ship consisted of non-cemented armour. The machinery spaces were protected by a waterline belt and the deck above them consisted of of high-tensile steel. The sides of the magazines consisted of armour plates and their roofs were protected by plates. The gun turrets had thick sides and roofs.Lenton, British & Empire Warships of the Second World War, p. 57
Construction and career Amphion was originally ordered for the RN as part of the 1931–1932 Naval Programme, but the order was suspended until the design of the Modified Leander class was finished.Friedman, British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After, p. 167 The ship was laid down at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth on 26 June 1933 and was launched by the Marchioness of Titchfield on 27 July 1934. Amphion was commissioned on 15 June 1936 and was completed on 6 July. The cruiser served as the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Africa and the 6th Cruiser Squadron (Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Tottenham) from 1936 to 1938.Morris, Cruisers of the Royal and Commonwealth Navies, pp. 194, 201
In early 1939 the ship was refitted and her Mk V four-inch guns were replaced by four twin-gun mounts for QF four-inch Mk XVI dual-purpose guns. The base for a rotating aircraft catapult and its associated crane were also installed.Raven & Roberts, British Cruisers of World War Two, p. 161
Australian service Amphion was sold to the RAN and was commissioned into service on 29 June 1939. She was renamed HMAS Perth on 10 July by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. On entry into Australian service, the ship's company stood at 646 (35 officers and 611 ratings). Most of the ship's company had departed Australia in May 1939 aboard : the enlisted men had to live and sleep in the ship's livestock holds.Frame & Baker, Mutiny!, p. 145 In early August, while en route to Australia, Perth was used to represent her nation at the 1939 New York World's Fair. While at New York City, there was a minor "mutiny" aboard. The cause was orders that sailors ashore for shore leave would have to return to the ship at 18:00 and change from white uniforms to blue uniforms, although the overall treatment of the sailors by the officers had been an issue since the cruiser was taken over by the RAN. Over 60 sailors gathered on the ship's forecastle, where they were confronted by officers with side arms (the first time RAN officers had been armed to deal with a mutiny) and were ordered below decks, but they refused. The warship's commanding officer, Captain Harold Farncomb, next approached the sailors and informed them that if they did not follow orders to disperse, he would treat their actions as a mutiny. The standoff could be seen from the wharfside, and a heavily armed force from the New York City Police Department was dispatched but did not intervene. Farncomb successfully defused the situation by making the offer that any sailor wanting to wear blue uniform all day ashore could do so after asking permission; an offer taken up by almost every sailor taking shore leave.Frame & Baker, Mutiny!, pp. 145–146
World War II
While still en route to Australia, Perth was steaming off the coast of Venezuela when World War II began.Frame, No Pleasure Cruise, pp. 149–150 As she was initially the only British Commonwealth warship in the Caribbean and western Atlantic, the cruiser began searching the region for German shipping and escorting convoys.Rohwer, Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two, p. 6 Perth did not leave the area until March 1940, sailing via the Panama Canal to reach Australian waters for the first time on 31 March.Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, pp. 126–127 On arrival, Perth was refitted at Sydney's Garden Island Naval Base until 29 April, during which her catapult was installed. She initially carried a Supermarine Seagull V, later a Supermarine Walrus. The ship was assigned to convoy escort duty and patrols along the Australian coasts in May. On 6 June Captain Sir Philip Bowyer-Smyth, Bt. assumed command of Perth and Rear-Admiral John Crace hoisted his flag aboard the cruiser as commander of the Australian Squadron.Carlton, Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, pp. 133–136, 146 These duties continued through November 1940, when she was sent to the Mediterranean to relieve her sister ship .Frame, No Pleasure Cruise, p. 160 Escorting a troop convoy from Australia to the Red Sea en route, Perth reached Alexandria, Egypt, on 24 December, after a short spell of escort duty in the Red Sea.Carlton, Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, p. 148 She was assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet.Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 127
During Operation Excess in early January 1941, the ship escorted a convoy from Malta to Alexandria along with other elements of the Mediterranean Fleet.Admiralty Historical Section, The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean: November 1940 – December 1941, pp. 44, 46 While docked in Grand Harbour, Malta, on 16 January, Perth was damaged by a near-miss from a bomb that temporarily knocked out her power and caused some flooding. During the bombing, her crew helped to put out the fire aboard the ammunition ship and rendered assistance to the damaged aircraft carrier . The cruiser departed Malta that evening and reached Alexandria on the 18th where she entered the dockyard for temporary repairs.Carlton, Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, pp. 173–179 On 22 January she departed to rendezvous with Illustrious and escort her to Alexandria and then returned to Greece where she patrolled the sea between Crete and Piraeus, Greece.Whiting, Ship of Courage: The Epic Story of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, pp. 5–6 While returning to Alexandria for more permanent repairs, Perth encountered a severe sandstorm while approaching the harbour on the night of 6/7 February, only to find out that the ship was going to be inspected by the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies, the following morning and thus had to be cleaned before his arrival.Carlton, Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, pp. 185–186
The ship entered the floating drydock on 9 February and remained there for 10 days. During this time, her catapult was removed and replaced by a pair of captured Italian Breda AA guns, one on each side of the catapult mount. In addition, a non-rotating Type 286 search radar was installed.Carlton, Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew, pp. 194–195 On the morning of the 27th, she was one of the escorts for destroyers carrying reinforcements for Operation Abstention, the attack on the island of Kastellorizo, off the Turkish coast in the Italian Dodecanese Islands. Arriving there that night, the British ships found that the Italians had reinforced their garrison; after landing the reinforcements, the army commanders decided to evacuate the island as they were outnumbered by the garrison.O'Hara, Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940–1945, pp. 82–83
Battle of Greece