Geoffrey Wellum – who died on July 18, 2018 aged 96 – was the youngest Royal Air Force pilot to take part in the Battle of Britain aged just 18 in 1940. So desperate were the RAF for pilots in the summer of 1940 that Wellum’s training was cut short and he was sent straight into combat. He flew a Spitfire after never having trained on the aircraft or even having seen one before stepping into the cockpit for the first time. He first flew in combat after seeing five of his comrades killed the previous day. Wellum went on to down numerous German aircraft as one of the RAF’s top fighter aces of the Battle of Britain.
In the 1970s Wellum found his life in crisis after his business failed and his marriage ended. To cope with this he wrote down his memories of surviving the Battle of Britain. Then he placed the manuscript in a drawer and forgot about it for decades. Three decades later he unearthed his notes and lent them to a researcher at publisher Penguin who was researching the period. The researcher was so impressed that they passed the manuscript to their colleagues. The published book, First Light, has become one of the most popular military history books of the 21st Century since being published in 2002. It is widely regarded as the best account of what it was like to take part in the Battle of Britain.
By: Iain Lewis
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