evacuate the island as they were outnumbered by the garrison. Battle of Greece Beginning on 7 March, Perth supported the Allied reinforcement of Greece by transporting soldiers from Alexandria to Piraeus along with patrolling the waters between Greece and Crete. On 17–24 March she escorted another convoy to Malta. Perth played a minor role in the Battle of Cape Matapan on 26–29 March as her squadron was spotted by the Italian fleet and pursued as they retreated towards the main body of the British fleet. Undamaged during the battle, she resumed her previous duties. Sometime in April, the ship was fitted with a quadruple 2-pounder () Mk VIII "pom-pom" AA gun mounted on the catapult base. She escorted a convoy to Malta during 18–20 April and on the return journey, she covered the battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet as they bombarded Tripoli Harbour, in Italian Libya, on the morning of 21 April. On 25 April the ship was assigned to help in the evacuation of Allied troops from Greece. The troops and refugees were loaded at night to minimise the ability of the Axis forces to interfere with them and the ships had strict orders to depart in time to be well away from the coast by dawn, even if troops remained ashore. On the night of 28/29 April, Bowyer-Smyth was in charge of the force sent to evacuate troops from Kalamata. He sent a destroyer forward to reconnoitre the situation in the port while his other ships remained offshore. 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. By the time that the destroyer was able to report that the harbour had been secured, Bowyer-Smyth felt it was too late to return. The cruiser was one of the escorts for the Tiger Convoy between Malta and Alexandria in early May. When the Germans invaded Crete on 20 May, Perth was part of Force C that consisted of two cruisers and four destroyers, patrolling in the vicinity of the Kasos Strait, northeast of Crete. The following day they were repeatedly attacked by German and Italian aircraft that sank one of the destroyers. Now assigned to Force D, Perth and her consorts intercepted a German invasion convoy of small ships on the morning of the 22nd,