Captain Hector MacDonald Laws Waller DSO & Bar RAN, HMAS Perth – Part 2

HMAS Stuart took part in the battle of Cape Matapan in March. During the action one of Stuart’s torpedoes damaged the Italian cruiser Zara. Waller was awarded a Bar to his DSO for this action.

Waller and his command were prominent during the failed Greece and Crete operations, and in operations along the North African coast, particularly the “Tobruk Ferry”, which brought supplies and men to the besieged fortress and ferried out wounded men. HMAS Stuart successfully completed 24 runs to Tobruk before trouble with the port engine forced the ship to return to Australia. Waller was twice Mentioned in Despatches for these operations.

After reaching Australia in September, Waller was given command of the light cruiser HMAS Perth.

In early 1942, Perth carried out various patrols and escort duties in New Zealand, New Caledonia and New Guinea. With the Japanese rapidly advancing, in February the cruiser sailed for Java, in the Netherlands East Indies. At the end of the month the Australian cruiser participated in the disastrous naval battle of the Java Sea, where five allied ships were sunk by the Japanese.

On 28 February and 1 March, Perth and the American heavy cruiser USS Houston fought a fierce action when they were engaged by a much larger Japanese force.

Waller, never a man to admit defeat, aimed to force a passage through the enemy fleet via the Sunda Strait. After completing a turn, Perth was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side which knocked out the forward engine room.

By this stage the ship had expended all of its main ammunition and the turret mounted 6-inch guns were reduced to firing practice ammunition and the 4-inch guns star shells. A second torpedo struck Perth close to the first strike and Waller gave the order to abandon ship.

One of Perth’s survivors later wrote of the last sighting of Hec Waller:

Captain Waller was last seen with his ‘Mae West’ blown up at the front of the bridge, looking down at the silent guns. Shortly afterwards the bridge was seen to receive a shell and Perth’s captain must have been killed instantly.

Several more torpedoes struck Perth and at 12.25 am on 1 March 1942 the cruiser slipped beneath the waves. Houston sank soon afterwards. Of Perth’s crew, 353 officers, ratings and civilians were killed or drowned. The survivors were rescued by the Japanese and spent the next three and a half years as prisoners of war. Another 106 men from Perth died in captivity.

Hec Waller was 41 years old. He was posthumously awarded a Mentioned in Despatches “for gallantry as resolution whilst serving in HMAS Perth, lost by enemy action in the Far East on 1st March 1942.”

Considered by many to have been “the outstanding naval officer of his generation”, in 1997 a Collins Class submarine, HMAS Waller, was named in his honour.

Michael Kelly, Historian, Military History Section