Ian Frazer's father Len was an Australian survivor of the battle for Crete who evaded the Nazi occupiers for some two years. In that time he kept a meticulous diary, which his son finally read when Len died. When he showed it to Sean Damer, who has lived on Crete and speaks Greek, it became clear this was a remarkable document. By decoding the diary and working from his local knowledge and the memoirs of other veterans, Damer placed Len's story in the context of the wider struggle. This led to the unearthing of other memoirs, and eventually their combination into one seamless narrative that tells the full story of this remarkable episode of the war.
While the battle itself has been covered extensively by military historians, the story of escape and evasion by ANZAC (and some British) soldiers has not been told properly before. It is an amazing tale of bravery, desperation, terrible cruelty and great loyalty.
