HMAS Perth

His Majesty’s Dockyard Portsmouth launched this modified Leander class light cruiser on 26 July 1934 and she entered service in the Royal Navy on 6 July 1936. The Australian government purchased the ship and commissioned her into the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS PERTH at Portsmouth on 29 June 1939. Her crew came from HMAS ADELAIDE, which had paid off into reserve the previous month.

After initially operating in the Caribbean, PERTH served in the Mediterranean where she participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan and was involved in the evacuations of Greece in April 1941 on Crete the following month, before operations off Syria. She left the Mediterranean for Australia in July 1941. After refit she carried out patrol and convoy duties in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean, and, after the Japanese entered the war, operated in the East Indies. In late February 1942, PERTH, under the command of Captain Hector Waller RAN, joined a mixed group of Allied cruisers and destroyers, commanded by Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman onboard the cruiser HNLMS DE RUYTER. The force left Surabaya to intercept a Japanese convoy; the ensuing action was the Battle of the Java Sea.

Only three cruisers, including PERTH, survived the Battle of the Java Sea, and she, with USS HOUSTON, attempted to move south through the Sunda Strait. They encountered a Japanese amphibious force and, in a fierce battle, Japanese destroyers torpedoed and sank both cruisers on 1 March 1942 350 of her crew and three civilians from PERTH's crew died; the remainder became prisoners of the Japanese; 106 of them died in captivity before the end of the war.