
Nicolai was a Greek laundry man in the employ of the British during World War II. Nicolai, who spoke Kurdish and Greek and understood English, was hired by the Germans to eavesdrop on SOE activities in the Mediterranean and report them to the Germans. In November 1943, he was caught overhearing the plans for the raid on Navarone by Andrea Stavros, and Major Roy Franklin ordered that Nicolai be shot. However, Nicolai's supervisor ultimately rejected this order, as well as the revised order to hold Nicolai incommunicado for a week. Nicolai was thus able to tell the Germans about the commandos' planned infiltration on a fishing boat, leading to a patrol boat intercepting them and calling out to them in English before the commandos ambushed its crew and destroyed the boat.