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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[6] 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.

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.

[14] As she was initially the only British Commonwealth warship in the Caribbean and western Atlantic, the cruiser began searching the region for German shipping[14] and escorting convoys.

[21] 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 SS Essex and rendered assistance to the damaged aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.

[23] 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.

When the destroyer reported fighting in the harbour, he decided that it was not worth risking his ships being silhouetted again the fires and explosions in the port and ordered a return to Crete.

Now assigned to Force D, Perth and her consorts intercepted a German invasion convoy of small ships on the morning of the 22nd, escorted by the Italian torpedo boat Sagittario.

The torpedo boat had been trying to collect stragglers and her commander ordered his convoy to disperse while he laid a smokescreen and then engaged the Allied ships with little effect.

[33] On the evening of 28 May, the ship was assigned to Force D, three cruisers, three destroyers and a troopship, which was sent to evacuate soldiers from Sphakia, a small port on the southern coast of Crete, after their defeat by German paratroopers.

Beginning at 09:30 Force D was repeatedly attacked by German aircraft, with Perth suffering several near-misses before being struck by a bomb which exploded in the forward boiler room shortly before 10:00 with 4 of her sailors and 9 of the 1,188 embarked soldiers killed.

It also bent the starboard inner propeller shaft and badly damaged the galley, the high-angle fire-control computer, the Admiralty Fire Control Table for the six-inch guns and started many leaks in the hull plating.

On the 27th she helped to lay a minefield off Damour and then provided gunfire support to Allied forces and bombarding Vichy facilities through to the end of the campaign before returning to Alexandria on 15 July.

Completion of the refit at Cockatoo Island was delayed by a month after a fire melted the electrical cables leading to the director-control tower on the roof of the bridge; on 24 November the ship conducted her full-power sea trials.

After Singapore was captured (endangering the destination port of Palembang), all but Perth and the cargo vessel SS 's Jacob were ordered to return to Fremantle.

Perth escorted the three other vessels back to within 700 nautical miles (1,300 km; 810 mi) of Fremantle before turning north to join ABDA's Western Strike Force.

The Japanese floatplanes observed his movements, despite attacks by Allied fighters at 14:18 and 14:30, and their report caught the invasion force widely separated as it prepared to conduct the landing that evening.

The gunfire duel continued while the torpedoes were being launched and Perth reported "tight salvos landing around [the ship], first 25 yd (23 m) short, then 25 yards over".

Two of the British destroyers charged through the smoke in an attempt to disrupt the attacks, Electra being sunk in the manoeuvre, and the Allied cruisers took up a course parallel to Exeter's.

By this time, Takagi could see the lighthouse at Surabaya and he decided to break contact in the gathering darkness lest any of his ships enter a minefield defending the port.

The Allies believed that Sunda Strait was free of enemy vessels, but the Japanese western invasion force had assembled at Bantam Bay on the northwestern tip of Java without their knowledge.

Harukaze, Hatakaze and their sister Asakaze closed to attack, although the former ship was struck at least three times by Allied shells that killed three men and wounded 15.

The stripping of Perth's wreck was not publicly reported until December 2013; the Australian Broadcasting Corporation speculated that the government departments made aware of the issue tried to keep it under wraps to avoid further deterioration of relations between Australia and Indonesia, particularly following the Australia–Indonesia spying scandal.

As of that date, the ship's six-inch gun turrets, starboard-side armour belt and its associated hull plating and the propellers had all been removed, as had almost all of the propulsion machinery, most likely because it is low-background steel.

"[70] The cruiser's wartime service was later recognised with the battle honours "Atlantic 1939", "Malta Convoys 1941", "Matapan 1941", "Greece 1941", "Crete 1941", "Mediterranean 1941", "Pacific 1941–42", and "Sunda Strait 1942".