Electra was an E-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, pennant H27. Hawthorn Leslie built her, and she was commissioned in 1934.
Commander Cecil Wakeford May took her on 28 January 1941. In the Java Sea he was the senior British destroyer officer.
On the afternoon of 27 February 1942 she and Jupiter fired ranging salvos at the Japanese van. An 8-inch shell then hit a boiler room in Exeter and dropped her out of the line. Doorman signaled the British destroyers to counterattack. Electra went into the smoke behind the cruiser.
On the far side of the smoke she met Japanese destroyers. A shell hit a boiler room and she stopped. A Japanese destroyer came out of the smoke and shot her to pieces at close range. Japanese records name Asagumo. Later accounts add Minegumo. The American narrative and the London Gazette do not name the ship.
She sank at about 1800. Commander May was lost with her. The submarine S-38 picked up survivors early the next morning. One count says 54 men were saved, and another says 58.