First Light

Product Information

An intimate account . . . rich in detail' James Holland, Wall Street Journal, 'Five Best World War II Memoirs' Wellum suffered severe combat fatigue after three years' intensive flying, because of the immense strain that frontline British fighter pilots were put under during that period. He returned from Malta to Britain, becoming a test pilot on the Hawker Typhoon, based at Gloster Aircraft. Right, got it? What, you mean you haven't bought it yet? Well, let me tell you why you should. Firstly, this book has moved, in a single reading, into my top five favourite books of all time. The achievement is all the greater in that the other occupiers of that list were books I read when I was much younger, unmarked, and could receive deeper and more lasting impressions from the books I read. But First Light has broken through the dull accretions, and the dullening, of age. So, if you would be young again, read First Light.

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum | Waterstones

things TV - your favourite episodes, live programmes, the schedule and everything else. We ask that comments on the blog fall within the house rules.This tells the vivid and at times moving portrait of a Spitfires pilots journey through, not just the Second World War, but also young adulthood and the fears and emotions felt by someone young who was involved in the conflict. Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, eighteen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . . . First Light: The Story of the Boy Who Became a Man in the War-Torn Skies Above Britain is a 2002 memoir by Geoffrey Wellum, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot in the Second World War. In a way this was a dream come true - getting the chance to dramatise for BBC Two Geoffrey Wellum's stunning First Light on the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

First Light: The True Story of the Boy Who Became a Man in

But at that time, I'm sure, as he reflects in the film, he was desperate to fight on until the bitter end. This is the story of one of the R.A.F’s youngest Spitfire pilots who fought and survived the Battle of Britain with one of the most famous fighting Squadrons in the world – the legendary 92 Squadron. It was especially poignant to feel the author's loss of hope for his own survival as his tours wore on, and he lost increasing numbers of friends. You truly felt, along with the author, his utter devastation. He was then posted directly in May 1940 to 92 Squadron, flying Spitfires. He saw extensive action during the Battle of Britain. His first Commanding Officer was Roger Bushell, (later immortalised in 'The Great Escape'), and his close colleagues included Brian Kingcome.As Wellum starts to fly on operations there is a definite change in the tone of his writing. His recollections of time on the ground with his fellow pilots are still lighthearted and amusing, but this is in stark contrast to time spent in the air fighting over Southern England and later over Northern France. His descriptions of aerial combat are vivid and gripping, written with an immediacy that is terrifying. Tragedy strikes again and again as a steady stream of his friends are killed and badly wounded, and the pressure on these pilots to keep flying is relentless. No wonder that after 2 years of operational flying he is completely worn out, and he and the reader can finally pause for breath. He retired from the RAF in 1961 to take up a position with a firm of commodity brokers in the City of London until his retirement to Cornwall where he still lived when ‘First Light’ was published in 2002. If England had fallen to Germany, the country could not have been used as the launching point for the D-Day landings and the liberation of Europe. What the book may have benefited from is some more detail on the later career of the author, following on from the Battle of Britain. However, it is realistic to assume that this period is somewhat blurred in the authors memory. Aged seventeen, he signed up on a short-service commission with the Royal Air Force in August 1939. The first aircraft he flew was the Tiger Moth at Desford airfield in Leicestershire, After successfully completing the course, he then went on to fly the North American Harvard advanced trainer at RAF Little Rissington with 6FTS.