First Light: The True Story of the Boy Who Became a Man in the War-torn Skies above Britain

by Geoffrey Wellum (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.27

  An account of Boy Wellum, one of the youngest fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain. Enlisting in the RAF weeks before the outbreak of World War II, Geoffrey Wellum found himself fighting the Germans over the English Channel, a Spitfire pilot at just 18 years of age. This memoir follows Geoffrey through early (disastrous) training sessions, his first solo flights, his first battle and a harrowing account of being lost at sea. He describes the unique, exhilarating experience of flying a Spitfire and, also, the terrible toll that it takes on the young mind and body. At the age of 21 he is worn out physically and mentally. His war is at an end.

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.44

  Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF. Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat almost immediately, Wellum finds himself flying several sorties a day, caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s. 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.