This won't be so much a review as an injunction: read this book. That's right, stop reading this review right now and go and get hold of First Light however you can: buy it, borrow it, steal it if necessary (any writer in his deepest heart wants readers more than anything else, so if you can't afford to buy his work, he'll forgive someone who steals to read). 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 an account that anyone who has an interest in WW2 aviation will be delighted in. It's well told, full of humor, sadness, and death defying flying and combat action. 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. You read with sadness the loss of many good pilots and friends but still the men continue flying day after day facing terrible odds. 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.

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum - AbeBooks First Light by Geoffrey Wellum - AbeBooks

This was the truth for many soldiers - the feeling that they had been taken off the line before the 'job was done' and now were to be left to watch others die whom they could no longer help or protect. Holland, James (February 2001), Interview with Geoffrey Wellum , Curiously, in Wellum's book, Kingcome is spelled all the time as "Kingcombe". Wellum describes Kingcome as "the finest fighter pilot I ever flew with" and recommends his book A Willingness to Die

Select a format:

Much later, in an unpublished interview with The Times, Wellum recalled: "After I joined the squadron they went to Dunkirk and by the end of that day we'd lost five people, four of whom I'd met the night before in the officers' mess. I thought, 'Hold on a minute, this is bloody dangerous!’ " [4] Wellum's story is simply told and almost belies his heroic stature. He had done more in a few short years in his youth than most people do in a lifetime. The story is awe-inspiring. Vivid, wholly convincing, compelling. One of the best memoirs for years about the experience of flying in war' Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum | Goodreads

Meantime, our real Spit took off with the pilot delivering Boy Wellum's point of view (by way of a specially designed camera mounting on his flying helmet).Wellum claimed a Heinkel He 111 shot down on 11 September, and a quarter share in a Junkers Ju 88 downed on 27 September 1940. Two (and one shared) Messerschmitt Bf 109s were claimed "damaged" during November 1940. [9] 1941 [ edit ] In his combat narration Wellum conveys something of the texture of battle, the imminence of death, aircraft straining for kills yards apart, the exhilaration, the surrealism, the terror, the speed – and the Messerschmitt Bf 109s. “God, is there no end to them? The sun glints on their wings and bellies as they roll like trout in a stream streaking over smooth round pebbles. Trout streams, water meadows, waders, fast-flowing water, the pretty barmaid at the inn. Dear Jesus why this?” If you've seen the BBC film then at first you'll be more than a little confused after reading a couple of chapters. This awesome book is the authoritative account of a young Battle of Britain pilot. Because of pilot shortage his intake was rushed to the front without enough training on the Spitfire, meaning he had to learn how to fly it as well as fit into the elite squadron he'd been assigned to. The film exaggerated, he wasn't the youngest Spitfire pilot, but one of the youngest. The film only really concentrated upon a couple of characters. Also the film deletes the pilot's strong Christian beliefs and character. We learn from the book he had an overall high level of competence - he was rated as an above average RAF pilot.

First Light (TV Movie 2010) - IMDb First Light (TV Movie 2010) - IMDb

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the BBC commissioned a one-off drama for TV called First Light, based on Wellum's book of the same name. The film was first shown by the BBC on 14 September 2010 starring Sam Heughan. [20]Over the coming months he and his fellow pilots play a crucial role in the Battle of Britain. But of the friends that take to the air alongside Wellum, many never return. In any case, why does He allow this sort of thing to happen? Whatever He decides, many thousands of people, 'His children' we are all taught to believe, are going to be slaughtered before it is all over." It took him 35 years to turn his notebooks into a narrative, and the result is a highly personal account of what it is like to face mortal combat, day and night, and what it does to a man who is barely more than a boy Ben Macintyre

First Light: The Phenomenal Fighter Pilot Bestseller (The First Light: The Phenomenal Fighter Pilot Bestseller (The

This was so affecting! That it was true made it all the more poignant to watch. The fact that Wellum was teenager when he entered the RAF makes me realize all over again what the people of England were willing to do to protect their homes and their land. They sent their boys. In the mid-1980s, with the family business in liquidation and his divorce pending, [15] Wellum retired, as he had promised himself in his youth, to The Lizard peninsula, Cornwall, [15] settling in Mullion. He joined the local choir, and became deputy harbourmaster. [3] The whole thing feels unreal and I can’t believe this is really happening. I must be getting lightheaded! What a pity, in a way, that an aeroplane that can impart such a glorious feeling of sheer joy and beauty has got to be used to fight somebody.” There have been countless war memoirs and books about the Battle of Britain. Why another one? This one has some significant differences that make it a compelling read. Surprisingly, “First Light” was first published more than 60 years after the events described within. At just 18 years of age, the author Geoffrey Wellum was the youngest RAF pilot to fight action during the Battle of Britain. He would eventually become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Unlike most war memoirs, his training takes up more than a third of the book. Despite the delay in publishing the book, Wellum had jotted down notes in an exercise book at the time—something that would give his account unusual depth and quality. Wellum's real achievement is to make the reader experience with him the sheer difficulty of learning to fly along with its many dangers.For me, creating the tension on the ground was just as important as in the air. I love the waiting scene in dispersal before Geoff's first combat - the tinkling of teaspoons in cups, the rustle of a magazine, Kingcome chewing on his match... and then the sudden shrill ringing of the phone - scramble! Soon after Dunkirk, 92 Squadron was transferred from RAF Duxford in Cambridgeshire to RAF Pembrey in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It was there that Wellum began his combat career, "chasing isolated German aircraft all over the south-west". [3] 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. For Wellum and his comrades the intensity eased, as Spitfires were unsatisfactory nightfighters, and the squadron moved into winter quarters at Manston in Kent. During the battle he had shot down a Heinkel He 111 bomber, and claimed a quarter share in a Ju 88. That November there were two damaged Bf 109s, and one shared. Another Bf 109 was claimed in 1941, and there may have been more, as he was not one greatly concerned with recording such things. Squadron Leader Geoffrey Harris Augustus Wellum DFC (4 August 1921 – 18 July 2018) [1] [2] was a British fighter pilot and author, best known for his participation in the Battle of Britain. Born an only child in Walthamstow, Essex, Wellum was educated at Forest School, Snaresbrook before serving in the RAF. After the war he remained in the RAF until 1961, and later ran a haulage business. In the mid-1980s he retired and moved to Mullion, Cornwall, where he wrote down his wartime memoirs. In 2002 these were published as First Light. First Light is one of those books that is destined to be remembered as a "classic" and rightly so. This is a wonderful book of a young man who joined the Royal Air Force before the start of World War Two and who later fought during the Battle of Britain and survived. Most of the book is taken up with his training as a pilot and the fighting during the Battle of Britain. However the book continues on to cover his role in Operation Pedestal and the fighting over Malta until his return to England as a tired and worn out pilot.