Three ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Perth after Perth, the capital city of Western Australia.
Nine battle honours have been awarded to ships named HMAS Perth. [1] [2]
HMAS Quickmatch (G92/D21/D292/F04) was a Q-class destroyer operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Although commissioned into the RAN in 1942, the ship was initially the property of the Royal Navy. Quickmatch served with both the British Eastern Fleet and British Pacific Fleet during World War II. In the 1950s, the destroyer was converted into an anti-submarine frigate. In 1957, Quickmatch operated in support of Malaya during the Malayan Emergency. The ship remained in service until 1963, and after use as an accommodation ship, was sold for scrap in 1972.
Three ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Stuart:
Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Vampire.
Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Vendetta.
Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Voyager.
There have been one ship and one shore establishment in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) named HMAS Waterhen. The first ship originally served under the name HMS Waterhen with the Royal Navy (RN). A British ship and an Australian ship of the name were ordered but later cancelled.
Four ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have been named HMAS Yarra after the Yarra River in Victoria.
HMAS Burnie (J198/B238/A112), named for the port city of Burnie, Tasmania, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The Battle of the Java Sea was a decisive naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II.
HMAS Platypus was a submarine depot ship and base ship operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between 1919 and 1946. Ordered prior to World War I to support the Australian submarines AE1 and AE2, Platypus was not completed until after both submarines had been lost, and she was commissioned into the Royal Navy from 1917 to 1919.
The Leander class was a class of eight light cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s that saw service in World War II. They were named after mythological figures, and all ships were commissioned between 1933 and 1936. The three ships of the second group were sold to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) before World War II and renamed after Australian cities.
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.
The Battle of Sunda Strait was a naval battle which occurred during World War II in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java, and Sumatra. On the night of 28 February – 1 March 1942, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth and the American heavy cruiser USS Houston faced a major Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) task force. After a fierce battle lasting several hours, both Allied ships were sunk. Five Japanese ships were sunk, three of them by friendly fire.
Fubuki was the lead ship of twenty-four Fubuki-class destroyers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. When introduced into service, these ships were the most powerful destroyers in the world. They served as first-line destroyers through the 1930s, and remained formidable weapons systems well into the Pacific War. Fubuki was a veteran of many of the major battles of the first year of the war, and was sunk in Ironbottom Sound during the Battle of Cape Esperance in World War II.
The first HMAS Bendigo (J187/B237/A111) was a Bathurst-class minesweeper, a group commonly known as corvettes and including escort and patrol duties along with minesweeping.
Hector Macdonald Laws Waller, was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). His career spanned almost thirty years, including service in both world wars. At the helm of the flotilla leader HMAS Stuart in the Mediterranean from 1939 to 1941, he won recognition as a skilful ship's captain and flotilla commander. He then transferred to the South West Pacific as captain of the light cruiser HMAS Perth, and went down with his ship during the Battle of Sunda Strait in early 1942.
The history of the Royal Australian Navy traces the development of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from the colonisation of Australia by the British in 1788. Until 1859, vessels of the Royal Navy made frequent trips to the new colonies. In 1859, the Australia Squadron was formed as a separate squadron and remained in Australia until 1913. Until Federation, five of the six Australian colonies operated their own colonial naval force, which formed on 1 March 1901 the Australian Navy's (AN) Commonwealth Naval Force which received Royal patronage in July 1911 and was from that time referred to as Royal Australian Navy (RAN). On 4 October 1913 the new replacement fleet for the foundation fleet of 1901 steamed through Sydney Heads for the first time.
HMAS Yarra (U77), named for the Yarra River, was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) that served during World War II. Commissioned in 1936, Yarra spent the early part of the war in Australian waters, then was transferred to the East Indies Station in 1940. The sloop operated in the Red Sea, then was involved in the Anglo-Iraqi War and the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. After operating as part of the Tobruk Ferry Service in the Mediterranean during November, Yarra was reassigned to Southeast Asia in response to Japanese attacks. On 4 March 1942, Yarra was attacked and sunk by a force of Japanese cruisers and destroyers while attempting to protect ships withdrawing to Australia.
HNLMS Evertsen was a Admiralen-class destroyer of the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was destroyed by ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 1 March 1942, during the Battle of Sunda Strait.
Ships and units of the Royal Australian Navy have received numerous battle honours throughout the navy's history.