First Light
by Geoffrey Wellum
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Book Summary Information
Author: Geoffrey WellumEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-05-01
ISBN: 0141008148
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Reviews of First Light
Book Review: Real and immediate, riveting air combat, thoughtfully introspective
Summary: 5 Stars
Geoffrey Wellum's stories of his days as a very young fighter pilot sat percolating somewhere on a back burner of his mind for over fifty years before the publication of this book, FIRST LIGHT. And yet somehow he managed to make these memories as real and immediate as if they were only yesterday. Wellum was not quite eighteen when he matriculated directly from his prep school into the RAF. In less than two years he was a Spitfire fighter pilot engaged in some of the most intense aerial combat and dogfights of the war, dodging German fighters over London in the Battle of Britain. At age 20, the victim of stress and fatigue of nearly constant sorties, bomber escorts and other combat flights, he was removed from operational duties, much to his chagrin and distress. After a stint as a flight instructor, however, he was detailed to the secret Operation Pedestal which was instrumental in lifting the Axis siege of Malta.
There is something about the stream-of-consciousness narrative that Wellum employs here that just grabs you and makes you feel like you're right there in the cockpit with him as he dodges, feints, and rolls through the skies over England in some of the most furious dogfighting scenes every told from the WWII European theater. Here's a sample -
"All over the sky 110s are being chased by Spitfires. My particular Hun takes violent evasive action and I follow. I fling the Spit all over the sky in order to stay with him. This chap is no fool. I'm on to a good one here, he's like an eel, blast him. I manage one quick burst and I'm sure I see strikes on the fuselage ... Think I've got this one. His dive steepens and he starts to turn on his back. I take a quick look round before finishing him off in a nice tidy manner and am just in time to see a 110 diving down on me, opening fire as he does so. Jesus, I've seen him just in time, another fraction of a second ..."
This goes on and on, as Wellum recalls how he attacked and dodged, in perhaps some of the most intense scenes of air combat ever written. As I read some of these passages I was reminded of James Salter's riveting novel of the air war in Korea, THE HUNTERS. But it's not all smoke and explosions in Wellum's story. You also feel his fear and see him questioning the powers that be, and wondering how does God decide which side is 'right'.
"In any case, why does He allow this sort of thing to happen? Whatever He decides, many thousands of people, 'His children' we are all taught to believe, are going to be slaughtered before it is all over."
Wellum was near 80 years old when his story was finally published, but it leapt to the top of the bestseller lists in Britain immediately. This is not surprising, since his storytelling skills are as superb as his piloting was back in 1940. The perspective of the intervening decades has lent a kind of precious wisdom to this story though. And Wellum's humility and plain-spokenness about those days brought to mind another young pilot's story, that of Samuel Hynes, a US pilot from Minnesota who flew scores of combat missions in the Pacific, all before he turned 21 too. Hynes's book was called Flights of Passage. It would make an interesting companion piece fo Wellum's book for any WWII air war buffs. I've already praised and touted the Hynes book. Now I'm doing the same for Wellum's. This is one hell of a good story, filled with action, but also with the kind of introspection that makes it a great memoir. I will recommend it highly. - Tim Bazzett, author of SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA
Summary of First Light
'An extraordinary, deeply moving and astonishingly evocative story. Reading it, you feel you are in the Spitfire with him, at 20,000 feet, chased by a German Heinkel, with your ammunition gone' - "Independent". Two months before the outbreak of WWII, seventeen year old Geoffrey Wellum left school to become a fighter pilot with the RAF. He made it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat almost immediately, Wellum found himself flying several sorties a day, caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s. Published more than fifty years afterwards, "First Light" is Geoffrey Wellum's gripping memoir of his experiences as a fighter pilot during WWII.Irish Books
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