First Light

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We had to produce a sequence breath-taking enough to make the audience believe that flying the Spitfire was love at first sight for Boy. He claimed a Bf 109 shot down on 9 July 1941 over France, [9] and in August 1941, Wellum was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. When interviewed many years later by Michael Parkinson, Parkinson asked him about how the pressure of playing top-level cricket, to which Miller gave the immortal, and precise, answer: 'Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse, playing cricket is not.

First Light: Dramatising the real Battle of Britain - BBC First Light: Dramatising the real Battle of Britain - BBC

During the recent offensive operations over France he has led his section and flight with great skill and determination.The couple divorced in 1975, and six years later he relocated to Mullion on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. The series aired on Netflix in 2019, after his death, and the episode "Battle of Britain" is dedicated in his memory. We follow Geoff Wellum through his application process, through a long and arduous training course and right the way through the war (although, understandably, Wellum places a lot of emphasis on the Battle of Britain). These men, as young as 18, flew one of the fastest and deadliest aircraft at the time and many didn't make it through the campaign or even their first mission.

First Light on Vimeo First Light on Vimeo

Some of them men, mostly elderly, take off their hats and the womenfolk in their black hoods and cloaks cross themselves. It's less about the actual flying and more about the physiological effects on the lead person, the combat stress. Wellum had done his Royal Air Force training on de Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes and North American Harvard monoplanes. By late September the Battle of Britain was over, and the blitz, the night-time onslaught on the country’s urban centres, was under way. In February 1942, he was reassigned to combat duties, being transferred to 65 Squadron based at Debden, where he was appointed a Flight Commander in March 1942.No wonder that after 2 years of operational flying he is completely worn out, and he and the reader can finally pause for breath.