One of the classic stories of World War II repackaged with a new foreword by bestselling historian Patrick Bishop.
Geoffrey Wellum was born in Walthamstow, and educated at Forest
School, Snaresbrook. Aged seventeen, he joined the RAF on a
short-service commission in August 1939 and served with 92 Squadron
throughout the Battle of Britain. In March 1942 he went to 65
Squadron at Debden as a Flight Commander and from there to Malta
later that year. He led a group of eight Spitfires off HMS Furious
to Luqa during Operation Pedestal.
Returning to England, Wellum became a test pilot on Typhoons at
Gloster Aircraft. He later became a gunnery instructor until the
end of the war. 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. Wellum left 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. He died in July 2018, aged ninety-six.
Vivid, wholly convincing, compelling. One of the best memoirs for
years about the experience of flying in war
*Sunday Telegraph*
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*
An intimate account . . . rich in detail
*Wall Street Journal, 'Five Best World War II Memoirs'*
An extraordinarily deeply moving and astonishingly evocative story.
Reading it, you feel you are in the Spitfire with him, at 20,000ft,
chased by a German Heinkel, with your ammunition gone
*Independent*
A brilliantly fresh, achingly written memoir. Thrilling and
frightening on virtually every page . . . Wellum takes you into
battle with him. A book for all ages and generations, a
treasure
*Daily Express*
Amazingly fresh and immediate . . . absolutely honest, it is an
extraordinarily gripping and powerful story
*Evening Standard*
There have been countless books about the Battle of Britain. But
the combination of immediacy - Geoffrey Wellum had jotted down
notes in an exercise book at the time - and distance - another 35
years would pass before he expanded his notes into a narrative -
gives this account extraordinary depth and resonance . . . First
Light will rank among the finest of Second World War memoirs
*Independent*
One of the most gripping personal accounts of aerial warfare ever
written
*Guardian*
Wellum's story is astonishing . . . moving yet startlingly
clear-eyed
*Telegraph*
No other account of flying in the Battle of Britain has been
articulated as well as Geoffrey's in First Light
*Daily Express*
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