Dudley Churchill Perkins

Born 1916 - Died 25 Feb 1944

Service number: WWII 1772 AWMM
Also known as: Vasili, the Lion of Crete AWMM
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
Last rank: Staff Sergeant AWMM New Zealand Artillery, 4 Field Regiment AWMM
War: World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM

Dudley Churchill Perkins — Portrait - This image may be subject to copyright

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Biographical information

Son of the Reverend John Perkins and of Adelaide Agnes Perkins (nee Perry) of Christchurch.

"Staff Sergeant Dudley Perkins went undercover to organise Cretans to fight German occupiers in 1943-1944, a mission which cost him his life. He was recommended twice for the Victoria Cross but because his actions were not witnessed by a British officer he could not be considered....Perkins was in Crete with the New Zealand Division when the Germans invaded in 1941. He was among the many Allied troops captured by the Germans as they made their way to boats to take them to Egypt. But Perkins escaped and hid in the mountains for a year, surviving on snails, dandelion roots and the generosity of the Cretan people. He returned to Egypt by submarine and joined British special operations looking for agents to go back to the island and organise guerilla groups....Perkins died instantly in a burst of machine gun fire as he was descending a woody rocky ravine." (Taken from the 'Sunday Star Times', May 18, 2003)

Jim McDevitt, a New Zealand soldier who escaped from Galatos POW Camp in Crete in July 1941 and remained in hiding until 1943, recalled his acquaintance with Captain Dudley Perkins (“Vasili”) during that period. In post-war correspondence, McDevitt described Perkins' involvement in resistance activity, their shared efforts to find a means of escape, and their final meeting near Aghios Theodoros in early 1943. McDevitt later visited Crete in 1946 and met members of Perkins’ guerrilla band, learning more about Perkins’ leadership and death in an ambush near the White Mountains.

Jim McDevitt recalled his acquaintance with Dudley Perkins during his time in hiding on Crete:

“Yes, I did know him quite well when I was ‘at large’ in Crete. After Tom Muit and his party made their escape from the south-western part of Crete in April 1942, Dudley left the area in which Ned Nathan and I were hiding and set out to try his fortune in the Kissamos area and in the region behind Maleme Aerodrome. He used to move around quite a lot with John Kerr, who, I think, used to live here in Auckland in pre-war days.

About February(?) 1943, Dudley and John Kerr passed through a village named Aghaios Thaodoros, and I do not remember seeing either of them again after our brief meeting on that occasion. They both said that they were going to camp at a spot nearer the south coast, just in case the submarine which we were expecting at any time should land a naval party in that area!

Dudley always took a keen part in all our many schemes to beg, borrow or steal a sea-worthy craft that would take us to Africa.

The first indication that I had that Dudley was in Egypt came from Tom Muir, who told me that he had been sent to do a V.C.T.U. course in Cairo. My own meeting with Tom took place at the cave (shown in the accompanying snaps) near Thoustogerikos, where some of us had congregated after we had received special word of Tom’s pending plans to have us taken off Crete by the Navy.

When I again returned to Crete in 1946, I learned some details of Dudley’s exploits as a partisan leader on the island. I met many members of his bands, including a certain young man named Michael Sciradakis, who seems to have been his constant companion during the days of guerilla warfare which flared up some months after our departure from Crete. Michael Seiradakis subsequently married an English UNRRA worker and is now living in Canea. His address is: 'Bella Vista,' Halepa, Canea, Crete.

Michael would be only too pleased to help you with information about Dudley’s heroic mission on Crete and about how he met his death in an ambush in the hills near the White Mountains. When I visited the village of Lakkor in 1946, I saw the spot where Dudley and one of his companions were buried by the Germans, who had established a permanent post of troops there, since the village was fairly close to the mountain headquarters of the guerilla bands.

I sent a snap to Dudley’s mother showing the approximate area in the hills where Dudley and his small but gallant band were ambushed.”

Escaped prisoners of war - Crete - Accounts by G.M Davis, A.W Gleeson, W.H.N Haslemore, J.F Kerr, A Lambert, J.T McDevitt, D.R.F MacKenzie, W.H Swinburne, Archives NZ R26357856 AWMM

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Dudley Churchill Perkins