Additionally, it also covers the emotions of flight training better than any other account I have read. I was fascinated by this book because although I knew about the Spitfires I had never read a book about them and their pilots. He is not a combat hero, an ‘ace’ (someone who has shot down five enemy aircraft), though he was a good pilot. This gentleman wrote of his own experiences at the age of 17 as RAF pilot in war action with a genuine and moving personal account from signing up to action. If you want an overview of the strategy and tactics of the Battle of Britain read Michael Korda's "With Wings Like Eagles".

Whilst in this post, the then Group Captain who was my boss four times up the chain, took me under his wing. Wellum's frank account of his long, losing bout with battle fatigue is both moving and enlightening. One is that the book is a bit too long; after the Battle of Britain, Wellum doesn't do anything of great interest in the war and the account of Operation Pedestal can't really stand comparison with his depiction of the earlier fighting.It is the story of an idealistic schoolboy who couldn't believe his luck when the RAF agreed to take him on as a "pupil pilot" at the minimum age of seventeen and a half in 1939. On 11 August 1942, Wellum led 8 Spitfires launched from the carrier HMS Furious to reinforce the RAF fighter complement at Luqa airfield on the island of Malta. The true mark of a fighter pilot is not the number of enemies he's shot down or the way he flies his plane.

Rafatrad Limited is a private limited company registered under the company number 3455255 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Air Forces Association. This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. I sincerely hope you are with us and enjoying a calm and peaceful life with your family and friends. I found the description of Wellum's flying training amusing and interesting and the air battles are, as one would expect, utterly exhilarating. The flights were something else, starting in the back seat first, then moving to the front, then eventually flying solo after a summer of delays to the training, in October.Two months before the outbreak of WWII, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum leaves school to become a fighter pilot with the RAF. Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron.

A few more seasons of instructing, moving to another school just down the road, at Goodwood, and things were starting to come together. It then shifts to his participation in the Battle of Britain and to his participation in Operation Pedestal, flying planes to Malta off an aircraft carrier.I found it hard to put the book down late at night, which brought forth a moan from my wife about turning the lamp off or else! Once we process your credit, the duration of the bank transfer will depend on your card issuer’s policies. At the beginning of the same year I co-founded the Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group, a charity established to raise the funds required to rebuild Hawker Typhoon RB396 to flight. Two months before the outbreak of WWII, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF .