HMAS Perth (D29)

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

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.

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. As built Amphion had an overall length of 562 feet 4 inches (171.4 m), a length between perpendiculars of 530 feet (161.5 m), a beam of 56 feet 8 inches (17.3 m), and a draught of 19 feet 5 inches (5.9 m) at deep load. The ship displaced 7,040 long tons (7,150 t) at standard load and 9,140 long tons (9,290 t) at deep load. This gave her a metacentric height of 4.5 ft (1.4 m) at deep load. 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 72,000 shaft horsepower (54,000 kW), were intended to give the ships a maximum speed of 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph) The unit system necessarily meant that each machinery unit had its own funnel. The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).

The main battery of the Modified Leander class consisted of eight BL 6-inch (152 mm) 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 4-inch (102 mm) 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 0.5 in (12.7 mm) AA machineguns. They were also armed with eight 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in two above-water quadruple mounts, one on each broadside.