Thread: The sinking of HMAS Perth 1942

Today marks the day ,in 1942, that H.M.A.S . Perth was sunk by the Japanese fleet in 1942. However, many ships , from several Allied navies, were sunk that day. The story starts 24 Feb, 1942.


Perth left Batavia on the 24th for Surabaya to join the combined American, British, Dutch, Australian Fleet [ ABDA] under the command of a Dutch Admiral. The ships had not exercised together before, and communications and signalling between ships was awkward.The ships left Surabaya on the night of the 26th., Feb. to search for the Jap. invasion fleet, but were unable to locate them.The next day Jap. ships were reported to the north, contact was made, the battle was fought in two stages.

For the early part of the battle, the Japs. were out of range of Perths guns, but at 4.25 pm she opened fire, on Jap destroyers off her stbd. bow. At 4.37, she came under intense @ accurate fire from from the Jap. 8" cruisers Nachi, and Haguro. HMS Exeter was hit at 5.14 and immediately lost speed, and Perth was forced to swerve quickly to avoid a collision. Perth immediately circled Exeter laying a protective smoke screen. At 5.45 pm., the Nachi @ Haguro appeared thru the smokescreen. The light cruiser Naka and destroyers were even closer. In the exchange of fire, Perth scored hits on Haguro. At 6.30 pm., the Japs retired, ,and were lost from view. At 7.15, a Jap. aircraft dropped flares illuminating Perth @ the other ships, and 15 minutes later, Perth opened up on destroyers delivering a torpedoe attack on her port side. The destroyer HMS Jupiter exploded @ sank at 9.25 pm.

Perth passed by survivors from HMS Encounter at 10.15, but was under orders not to stop @ attempt rescue. At 10.30 pm , Perth @ Houston once again began an exchange of fire with Nachi @ Haguro, @ at the same time, Jap destroyers delivered another torpedoe attack.Just after 11 pm the Dutch cruisers Java @ DeRuyter were hit by torpedos. Both blew up with appalling loss of life. DeRuyter, ahead of Perth, blew up so quickly, Perth was barely able to avoid a collision with her. Perth @ USS Houston broke off the action @ headed for Tanjong Priok, Batavia.

Perth @ Houston returned to Tanjong Priok 2.30 pm 28 Feb..@ rceived orders to escape thru Sunda Strait, @ make for Tjilitap. Perth's sister ship, Hobart, had had entered the strait at 6.10 that morning @ by 9 am had slipped into the Indian Ocrean Both ships were short of fuel @ ammunition @ only a small amount of was available in the port. Plans to leave at 6pm were thwarted by by an air attack @ it was 9pm before both ships cleared the protective minefieldoff Tanjong Priok. There was A calm sea @ clear sky as both ships raced for the entrance to Sunda Strait

Allied intelligence had reported the Strait clear of enemy vessels, @ the nearest Japs were reported to be 50 miles north- west, @ moving away.Both reports were incorrect, both ships sped on, not knowing the Jap invasion fleet was already at Java, directly across their escape route. At 10.30 pm Perth @ Houston were sighted by the destroyer Fubuki, which quitely shadowed them for the next half hour. At 11.06, Perth lookouts sighted Hrukaze about 5 miles ahead, at the entrance to the Strait. When challenged, she made a unreconised reply, @ sped off making smoke, to cover the Jap transports Perth immediately turned to stbd. @ opened fire.Fubuki fired her torpedos at Perth @ Houston, but missed; instead hitting the Jap transports

Destroyers of the 5th @ 11th destroyer squadrons now made torpedo attacks on the Allied cruisers@ an urgent call was sent to to the 8" cruisers Mogami @ Mkuma, to assist. Perth exchanged fire with Hatakaze, as the other destroyers continued to attack.The light cruiser Natori, @ her destroyers now joined the attack, but the fire from Perth @ Houston was so intense, the Japs were forced to break off under a smoke screen. By now, Mogami @ Mikuma had commenced firing at our ships. Another attempt was made by Jap destroyers to mount a torpedo attack, but they were driven off, by the sheer ferocity of of the gunfire from Perth @ Houston.At 11.50 Perth was hit by a shell from Harukaze, which did little damage. Our cruisers were still exchanging fire with the enemy cruisers @ Houston scored hits on Mikuma, causing her to lose electrical power. by now Perth @ Houston were running very low on ammunition

Perth was low on 6", @ the 4" AA were firing star shells@ practice rounds to make it look like they had plenty of ammo. left. On Houston the forward mounts were getting low, @ 8" shells were being passed by hand from the disabled rear to the fwd. turrets. There were so many targets, our ships were unable to fire on them all, @ some Jap destroyers were able to get in close @ rake our cruisers decks with machine gun fire, while others lit up our cruisers with searchlights . At 11.55 pm Perth started to turn to make a run for Sunda Strait. At the same time, Murakumo, Harukaze, @ Hatakaze all fired torpedos toward her. Perth was hit by 4 torpedos, over the next 15 minutes, @ at 0025 1st March, 1942, she sank a few miles north of St. Nicholas point at the entrance to Sunda Strait. Houston now received all the attention@ sank at 0045, not far from Perth.In all the Japs had fired over 90 torpedoes at our ships .



H.M.A.S. Perth lies in 120 ft of water, at position 05.51.42S, 106.07.52E about 3 miles north of St. Nicholas point on the NW tip of Java.
Of her crew of 682 men, only 229 returned to Australia at Wars end.

Thanks to Artic convoy veterans association of Australia, WW2


Humbly yours Bob

Most of the survivors from the Perth were captured and sent to the Thai-Burma railway. A good many either perished there or in the Japanese coal mines. That's if they didn't go down on transports that were sunk by the allies on their way to Japan. The Japanese refused to mark ships that were being used as prisoner transport.