The Great Automatic Grammatizator

 Royal Air Force pilots stationed in Greece in April 1941—among them Peter, Fin, and the RAF narrator—discover a nine-year-old girl (Katina) sitting alone and motionless as she watches her village burn. She has a bloody head wound, so they rush her back to their camp, an airfield in Paramythia surrounded by mountains. Days later, during a storm, Doc, the camp’s doctor, brings the now-bandaged girl to the mess tent for lunch. She is Greek, speaks no English, and appears frightened. Monkey, the squadron’s CO, calls for Pericles, the Greek interpreter.

With Pericles interpreting, the squadron learns the girl’s name is Katina and that her whole family was killed by German soldiers. The RAF narrator watches the mountains through the rain and ominously observes that they have begun closing in on their valley, sensing the mountains themselves have “turned against” the RAF. Meanwhile, Katina gravitates toward Fin, the only soldier who consistently makes her laugh. The narrator finds her laughter beautiful—Fin has a rare gift for lifting the spirits of those he cares for, no matter the circumstances.

The next day, when German planes descend upon the airfield and begin shooting, Fin grabs Katina and pulls her into the trenches. But she immediately breaks free, running onto the field and shouting at the enemy planes as chaos unfolds around her. Soon after, Monkey makes her an official member of the squadron. The RAF narrator recalls a moment during this period when a soldier called The Bull admitted to having just shot down five S-79 planes all on his own—only to never return from patrol days later.

The squadron relocates to an airfield near Athens, where the mountains seem to press ever closer. After a few days of calm, the Germans launch another attack, and a series of battles ensue. As the RAF refuels their planes on the ground, enemy forces exploit their vulnerability, opening fire and dropping small lead bombs. But the RAF retaliates, driving the Germans off and downing one enemy plane. The captured pilot is young and fair-haired, visibly afraid and wounded in the leg. When Katina looks in his face as he is carried to Doc’s, she’s stunned—he doesn’t look like a soldier, just “an ordinary boy.”

RAF pilots decide to move four planes into a hangar, as the Germans don’t usually waste time bombing the hangars. But their plan is ill-fated, as the very next morning, enemy bombers reduce the hangar and the planes to rubble. That same afternoon, Peter leaves to aid a nearby village under attack, and he never returns. Later that night, the RAF narrator swears he hears Peter, his former roommate, enter their tent, undress, and climb into bed. Though he knows it sounds impossible, he insists it’s true—by morning, Peter’s bed even looked slept in. But he never told a soul.

The Battle of Athens begins on April 20, an aerial fight the RAF narrator describes as “the last of the great dog-fighting air battles.” As planes clash in the sky, the mountains loom large, unimpressed by the spectacle—they have seen far greater history, and they “know” the RAF is doomed. The narrator witnesses all kinds of horrors: bodies and planes shot from the air, death at every turn. In the end, though the RAF suffers heavy losses, the Germans suffer more. What remains of the squadron is ordered to Megara, and the narrator and Fin entrust Doc with ensuring Katina’s safe arrival.

Early the next morning, the RAF narrator and Fin watch in awe as hundreds of Greek villagers descend on the airfield, camouflaging it with heather and bracken. Soon after, the squadron relocates to an airfield in Argos. As they prepare to escort an important shipment, German forces ambush them, swiftly shooting down two planes. Before long, all the RAF’s aircrafts are destroyed, forcing the pilots into the trenches. Suddenly, the narrator sees Katina run onto the airfield, shaking her fists at the enemy planes—then, before he can react, she is shot and falls to the ground.

Without hesitation, the men swarm out from the trenches and rush to Katina’s motionless body, ignoring the gunfire around them, which soon subsides. Fin carries her to Doc, who touches her wrist and solemnly confirms she is dead. As the RAF narrator watches his Hurricane aircraft burning in the distance, he feels that same fire igniting “in the hearts of the people of Greece.” In the smoldering flames, he sees a clear image of Katina—her chest bloody, the sun shining in her hair—turning toward him.