First Light: Original Edition (Penguin World War II Collection)

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This is the memoir of one of the youngest British fighter pilots to take part in World War II about his experiences. It only seems a few weeks or so ago that I walked out of the school gates for the last time, but it can't have been a matter of weeks because I'm dressed up in a blue suit with a pair of wings on it. 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.

The author comes across as somewhat of a twit (although a heroic one), but this seems to enhance the book's verisimilitude. Two months before the outbreak of WWII, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF .Back to the pub, a slightly more sombre affair this time, with photos and a book of condolence laid out. Subsequently, [Wellum] had written a memoir of his time as a Spitfire pilot but never intended it for publication. Additionally, it also covers the emotions of flight training better than any other account I have read. Wellum's frank account of his long, losing bout with battle fatigue is both moving and enlightening.

I find his work, including the backgrounds featured, to be very evocative, moving and highly commendable. Here in 2010, being the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Geoffrey Wellum was featured on a t. Standing room only and as I was certainly not classed as a close relative or friend, I was outside with a few hundred others. This is a fabulous, engrossing book that tells the story of a young Spitfire pilot during World War Two.

I've had a distant fascination with Spitfires for 10-ish years now, so imagine my excitement when I was reading the detailed accounts of flying one. I met Neil, Geoffrey’s son, and he seemed very grateful for hearing my story of how much his father had touched my life.

It reminded me strongly of the Officers’ Mess, the atmosphere of which is so well described in his book. He stayed in the RAF after 1945, serving in Germany as a staff officer, followed by a four-year tour of duty with 192 Squadron. photo pictorial montage wrappers, the experiences of an RAF fighter pilot during WW2, joining aged 17 two months before the outbreak it covers his training and includes his service with 92 Squadron during the Battle of Britain, 65 Squadron at Debden as flight commander and in HMS Furious taking Spitfires out to Malta as part of Operation Pedestal, very slight slant to spine, edges tanned, nine line ink inscr. The account of Wellum's Battle of Britain is an incredible read, as all these true stories are, told by one of the few, who is owed so much by so many. Read all In May 1940 eighteen-year old Geoffrey Wellum joins the 92 squadron of the Royal Air Force and is taken to the pub,where pilots who have seen action sign their names on a blackboard.absolutely honest, it is an extraordinarily gripping and powerful story * Evening Standard * A brilliantly fresh, achingly written memoir. That was great I thought and with about three weeks until the trip I was really looking forward to meeting him again. I always knew that what I wanted to fly was not the frontline fast jets of the modern RAF, or airliners, but Spitfires. As I was becoming considerably less naive than the teenager who had applied to join all those years ago, I was starting to learn that the RAF and then the BBMF was not the only way to fly warbirds, far from it. In the interviews, Wellum talked about the difficulties he encountered later on in reconciling this part of his life with his later years and I was eagerly awaiting his second memoir 'Twilight of the Few' but there seems to be some delay or problem in publishing it.