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Title: First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, Geoffrey Wellum ISBN: 0-471-42627-X Publisher: Wiley Pub. Date: 14 March, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.92 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fresh after 50 years
Comment: You'd think that after 50 years, all the worthwhile first-person there-I-was accounts of flying Spitfires in the Battle of Britain would have been published. You'd be wrong.
This is an exceptionally well written book that gently yet almost instantly transports you to England, 1939. You'll go through RAF flight training, and then be behind a V12 Merlin over Kent in the middle of the Battle of Britain. There are hundreds of such true tales - and I've read most of them - but this is clearly one of the best.
'Boy' Wellum not only takes us inside the cockpit, but inside the emotions of a young man at war, and inside an amazing time and place in world history. If you are a pilot looking for what it was like to fly the Tiger Moth, Harvard, then at 168 hours climb into a Spitfire, this is the book for you. And if you are interested in a literate immersion into The Few, this is the book for you.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of "The Few" Writes One of the Best
Comment: As other reviewers have noted, there have been enough books written about the Battle of Britain to fill several warehouses. Some good, some not so good. This is one of the most personal and satisfying accounts that you will ever read. Geoffrey "Boy" Wellum was in the thick of it, and brings the reader along for the ride. In the beginning you feel the excitement of flight training (and the ever-present danger). By the end you experience the mental and physical exhaustion that left this veteran pilot certain he would never survive the endless combat missions over his home country and eventually over occupied France. And when he was finally released from operational flying... he "rested" by teaching others to fly and as a test pilot! My only disappointment in this book is that it ended. It's hard to believe that in the past 6-7 months we've been given two great reads on the Battle: "Fighter Boys" and "First Light."
Rating: 4
Summary: Unusual Look into History
Comment: An interesting book. Not the best written that I've seen, but its quirky first person narrative does capture the feel for the place and period very well. There were a few historical and technical errors in the book, but these are to be expected in memoirs of this type. I was able to ignore them and move on easily enough. The writer's affection for the aircraft, a Spitfire Mark V, showed through in his lovely prose. I do wish he had gone into a bit more detail about the Battle of Britain in general, and given a more complete outline of his own service. I felt like I was being racheted forward through the war, one episode every six weeks. In spite of my complaints, a good story from one of the many people who still deserve our gratitude and respect. I'd say buy it.
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Title: Fighter Boys: The Battle of Britain, 1940 by Patrick Bishop ISBN: 0670032301 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 21 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Woodbine Red Leader: A P-51 Mustang Ace in the Mediterranean Theater by George G. Loving ISBN: 089141813X Publisher: Presidio Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain by Stephen Bungay ISBN: 1854108018 Publisher: Aurum Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: An Ace of the Eighth: An American Fighter Pilot's Air War in Europe by Norman J. Fortier ISBN: 0891418067 Publisher: Presidio Press Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Last Enemy (Classics of War) by Richard Hillary ISBN: 1580800564 Publisher: Burford Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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