First Light

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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).

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

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 DieThe 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.” In the summer of 1941 Wellum participated in more than 50 "sweeps" over occupied France (also known as Circus offensives) flying escort for Blenheim and Stirling bomber formations, taking the war to the enemy. 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. [3] [10] Soon after his arrival, 92 Squadron moved from Duxford in Cambridgeshire to Pembrey in Carmarthenshire. There, Wellum made his first sorties, pursuing a Junkers Ju 88 German bomber as far as Weymouth, Dorset, and losing it in the clouds; attempting night-fighting around Bristol; and “chasing isolated German aircraft all over the south-west”. But all of this was a prelude to the squadron’s move, on 9 September 1940, to Biggin Hill in Kent, at the centre of that summer’s battle. Wellum claimed a Heinkel He 111 bomber shot down on 11 September 1940, and a quarter share in a Junkers Ju 88 downed on 27 September. Two (and one shared) Bf 109's were claimed 'damaged' during November 1940. A Bf 109 was claimed shot down [by Wellum] on 9 July 1941 over France.

First Light: Original Edition - Geoffrey Wellum - Google Books First Light: Original Edition - Geoffrey Wellum - Google Books

Wellum left the Royal Air Force in 1960 [13] and took over the family haulage business. Later he became a commodities broker. He finished the war as a gunnery instructor, staying in the RAF, first as a staff officer in West Germany, followed by a four year tour with 192 Squadron. He married Grace, his wartime girlfriend and they had three children. 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. 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.

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This scene was crucial to the story, appearing little more than 10 minutes after the opening of the film. 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. This was one film where we had to get not just the emotional thrust right, but also the historical detail. There are a lot of people out there for whom this really matters - and I am one of them. 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] 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. One plane was brown and green, the other brown and grey. And the real one was based at Wycombe air park and our replica was 80 miles away on the drama set outside Dunstable.