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HMAS ''Perth'' was a modified ''Leander''-class light cruiser operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during the early part of World War II. She was constructed for the Royal Navy, where she was commissioned as HMS Amphion in 1936. After several years on the North America and West Indies Station, the cruiser was transferred to the RAN in 1939 and recommissioned as HMAS ''Perth''. At the start of World War II, ''Perth'' was used to patrol Western Atlantic and then Australian waters, before she was sent to the Mediterranean Sea at the end of 1940. There, ''Perth'' was involved in the Battle of Greece and the Battle of Crete, and the Syria-Lebanon Campaign before returning to Australian waters in late 1941. In February 1942, ''Perth'' survived the Allied defeat at the Battle of the Java Sea, only then to be torpedoed and sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Sunda Strait. Of the 681 sailors aboard, 353 were killed in battle. All but four of the 328 survivors were captured as prisoners of war: 106 died in captivity, and the surviving 218 were returned home to Australia after the war. In late 2013, divers found that the wreck of ''Perth'' had been partially stripped by Indonesian marine salvagers. ==Design and construction== The ship was one of three Modified ''Leander''-class light cruisers constructed for the Royal Navy. She had a displacement of 6,830 tons, with a length overall of , a length between perpendiculars of , a beam of , and a draught of .〔Cassells, ''The Capital Ships'', p. 92〕 The main difference to the previous five ''Leander''s was that the newer ships had their machinery and propulsion equipment organised in two self-contained units (two Parsons geared turbines and two Admiralty 3-drum boilers in each machinery space), allowing the ship to continue operating if one set was damaged.〔〔Cassells, ''The Capital Ships'', p. 93〕 The two exhaust funnels, one for each machinery space, gave the modified ships a different profile from the early ''Leander''s, which had a single funnel.〔Frame, ''HMAS Sydney'', p. 15〕 To cover the separate machinery spaces, the side armour was extended from , negating the weight reduction created by the separation.〔Frame, ''HMAS Sydney'', pp. 15–16〕 The machinery spaces produced for the four propellers, and could drive the ship to a maximum speed of .〔 At top speed, the cruiser could travel , while the more economical speed of produced a maximum range of .〔 The ''Leander''s' main armament was eight BL 6 inch Mk XXIII naval guns, fitted in four twin turrets.〔 During design, it was planned to modify the foremost and aftmost 6-inch turrets to be fitted with three guns instead of two, but this plan was cancelled when it was determined that the required alterations would cause several negative side effects, such as reducing the cruiser's top speed and causing problems with her effective fire control.〔Frame, ''HMAS Sydney'', p. 16〕 Her secondary armament consisted of four 4-inch Mk XVI guns at first, but these were later upgraded to four twin mounts.〔 For close-in defence, the ship was fitted with twelve 50 calibre machine guns in three quadruple mounts, and ten .303-inch machine guns, and a mixture of Lewis Guns and Vickers machine guns.〔 She was also armed with eight Mark VII 21-inch torpedo tubes in two quadruple mounts.〔 The ship carried an amphibious aircraft (initially a Supermarine Seagull V, later a Supermarine Walrus) on a catapult.〔 On entry into Australian service, the ship's company stood at 646 (35 officers and 611 sailors), but by the time of her loss, 681 were aboard: 671 naval personnel, six Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) personnel, and four civilian canteen staff members.〔 This cruiser was laid down as HMS ''Amphion'' for the Royal Navy at Portsmouth Dockyard on 26 June 1933.〔 She was launched by the Marchioness of Titchfield on 27 July 1934, commissioned into the Royal Navy on 15 June 1936, and completed on 6 July 1936.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMAS Perth (D29)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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