First Light

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This is regarded as a classic wartime memoir, and it's easy to see why. Geoffrey Wellum joined the RAF as an 18 year old straight out of school, and on the brink of war. He fought throughout the Battle of Britain and through to the end of 1941 as the RAF started to conduct more operations over France, and after a spell as an instructor took part in Operation Pedestal to relieve Malta. Shortly after this he returned to England out on medical grounds as a completely burnt out 21 year old. This is the point where the book ends, but Wellum went on to serve through the rest of the war as a test pilot and later as a gunnery instructor, and stayed in the RAF until 1960. Remarkably, he wrote his memoir in the 1980's but it remained unpublished for 20 years until he lent the manuscript to James Holland who was researching a book of his own at the time. I salute you, Geoff - however reluctant you are to be called a hero. I salute you and all those that fought alongside you. And I'm sure the audience will, too. 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. Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, eighteen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . . .

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum | Waterstones

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. An intimate account . . . rich in detail' James Holland, Wall Street Journal, 'Five Best World War II Memoirs' 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. 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. 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.

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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 In First Light, Geoffrey Wellum tells the inspiring, often terrifying true story of his coming of age amid the roaring, tumbling dogfights of the fiercest air war the world had ever seen. Amazingly fresh and immediate . . . absolutely honest, it is an extraordinarily gripping and powerful story Evening Standard

First Light (Wellum book) - Wikipedia

If you want an overview of the strategy and tactics of the Battle of Britain read Michael Korda's "With Wings Like Eagles". However, if you want a first-person account of a fighter pilot this is your book. Wellum doesn't give a good sense of how his squadron's work figures in the big picture but DOES give a good sense of what it is to be flying and fighting. First Light | The True Story of the Boy Who Became a Man in the War-Torn Skies Above Britain (Signed + 2 Signed Letters) Vivid, wholly convincing, compelling. One of the best memoirs for years about the experience of flying in war' Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

Wellum's close colleagues included Brian Kingcome. [8] Officers and guests celebrating the first anniversary of the arrival of No. 92 Squadron RAF at RAF Biggin Hill, September 1941. Wellum, Geoffrey [Squadron Leader Geoffrey Harris Augustus Wellum DFC (4 August 1921 - 18 July 2018) was a British fighter pilot and author, best known for his participation in the Battle of Britain] 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]