The wartime exploits of "Kapetan Vasili", New Zealander Dudley Churchill Perkins, have become a legend on Crete.
He first arrived on Crete following the Allied withdrawal from Greece, and was then captured by the Germans. He escaped within two weeks and spent a year avoiding German patrols and roaming Western Crete in search of a way to leave the island, before being evacuated to Egypt by a Greek submarine.
He was so impressed by the Cretans' assistance to him that he left his New Zealand unit and joined the British Special Operations Executive and returned to Crete as a special agent, taking command of a guerilla band which he trained, organised, and led in numerous attacks against the Germans.
Vasili is the result of several years of research by Murray Elliott, including interviews with Cretan resistance fighters and Perkins' S.O.E. colleagues. For the first time, the full story can be told.