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

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v=1677259080"}},{"id":274896715938,"handle":"fathers-day","title":"Father's Day","updated_at":"2024-01-29T23:55:12+00:00","body_html":"Put a smile on Dad's face this year with the perfect present for Father's Day - we have selected an exciting range of aviation themed gifts that will suit any budget, and are sure to make Dad feel special. God bless you Geoffrey, and all of your mates, those who died in battle, and those who so sadly died protecting our country. The relentless stiff upper lip and jolly RAF banter are also a little bit wearing over the course of 350 pages.

As he and his friend Peter ride the train: "We talk quietly, both wondering what on earth has hit us in the last twenty-four hours. 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.

Unfortunately, he said, he couldn’t attend the event as he was busy travelling around to lots of other events and couldn’t quite fit it in. Geoffrey ‘Boy’ Wellum in ‘G’ for George, depart under early morning sunlight to engage a mass of incoming enemy aircraft over the southeast coast. It's very well-written and will give you a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices made by the Second World War generation. I sincerely hope you are with us and enjoying a calm and peaceful life with your family and friends. I am a retired airline pilot who has flown over almost everywhere he has mentioned,flown in the same beautiful skies, as he had,but without the fear of flak or fighters.

He describes a hilarious scene during his first day in the prestigious 92nd Squadron when his commader discovered that Wellum had not only never flown a Spitfire, he'd never even seen one. He was getting a bit frail, he said, and getting about was difficult, but he’d be in the pub on the days I was coming and hoped to catch me. It rather brilliantly managed to convey the thoughts and feelings of the author while in the cockpit. Noting that the funeral arrangements had been pinned on the wall, it was taking place in around ten days’ time. It was a slightly extra curricular activity, but Chichester was local to where he lived, and also local to my home.It was about a young lad who had written to Geoffrey for years and who had arranged to come down and see him, but he had died a few days before, but the young lad came down anyway and was gutted. We follow Geoff Wellum through his application process, through a long and arduous training course and right the way through the war (although, understandably, Wellum places a lot of emphasis on the Battle of Britain). While Douglas Bader the Hurricane Pilot is all boasting and dash, all toughness and grit, Geoffrey Wellum is more contemplative and uncertain. This is a fabulous, engrossing book that tells the story of a young Spitfire pilot during World War Two.

Parky” gave the eulogy which was wired to a sound system outside, and afterwards “Disco” gave a more than fitting send off in the Spitfire. No wonder that after 2 years of operational flying he is completely worn out, and he and the reader can finally pause for breath. His sense of delight at being allowed to fly this remarkable aircraft is quite tangible, and he obviously regards the Spitfire with great affection: "The Spit is beginning to feel a friendly aeroplane.One of the best memoirs for years about the experience of flying in war’ Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph Two months before the outbreak of WWII, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF .

One of the best memoirs for years about the experience of flying in war' Max Hastings, Sunday TelegraphTwo months before the outbreak of WWII, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . 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. This is a great story and in finishing I would like to add the following comment from a great historian about this book: "A work of exceptional quality. Registered office address: Unit 34 Vulcan House Business Centre, Vulcan Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE5 3EF. I wrote to Geoffrey again, having met him once more since Capel-le-Ferne, at the film premier in London for the dramatisation of his book, where he was attending as guest of honour.It touches the heart, it is a true and honest account of a Veteran Pilot who served his country throughout the 2nd world war as a heroic pilot. In 1942 he went to 65 Squadron at Debden as a Flight Commander and from there to Malta later that year.