HMAS Yarra (U77)

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For other ships of this name, see HMAS Yarra.

Career Australia
HMAS Yarra
Builder:	Cockatoo Island Dockyard
Laid down:	24 May 1934
Launched:	28 March 1935
Commissioned:	19 December 1935
Status:	sunk by Japanese cruisers Atago and Takao off Java 4 March 1942
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,060 tons (standard), 1,515 tons (full load)
Length:	266 ft (79.8 m)
Beam:	36 ft (10.8 m)
Draught:	7 ft 6 in (2.25 m)
Propulsion:	Parsons, steam turbines, 2 shafts. 2,000 shp
Speed:	16.5 knots
Complement:	135
Armament:	3 x 4 inch Anti-aircraft guns, 4 x 3 pounder guns, 1 x MG, 2 x Depth Charge Throwers, 2 x twin tubes for 21 inch torpedoes
Motto:	"Hunt and Strike"
Badge:

HMAS Yarra (U77), the second ship to bear that name, was a Grimsby class sloop of the Royal Australian Navy that served during World War II. Yarra was laid down by the Cockatoo Island Dockyard at Sydney, New South Wales 24 May 1934, launched 28 March 1935 by Mrs Parkhill, wife of Archdale Parkhill, Minister for Defence and commissioned 21 January 1936.

Early on 4 March 1942, HMAS Yarra, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Robert William Rankin RAN, was escorting a convoy near Tjilatjap in the Indian Ocean, South of Java. The Yarra was then attacked by the Japanese cruisers Atago, Takao and Maya accompanied by two destroyers of Destroyer Division 4, Arashi and Nowaki. Commander Rankin ordered the convoy to scatter and turned the Yarra to engage the enemy. Pitched against overwhelming odds, the Yarra defended the convoy for an hour and half, but was then sunk with the loss of 138 of her crew. There were only 13 survivors. It was more than five days before a Dutch submarine rescued the men from the water and took them to Ceylon.

Australian War Memorial historian Daniel Oakman wrote that the defence mounted by the Yarra was "widely regarded as one of the bravest acts in Australian naval history".