Twilight of the Few

75 years ago Geoffrey Wellum was an eighteen-year-old pilot, about to take part in one of the most important battles of World War Two - the Battle of Britain. He and his other Spitfire pilots helped halt the progress of the Germans and took part in the first aerial battle to have strategic significant in the war. The fighting was intense and the teenage pilots knew that just one second's lapse in concentration might mean death. Two years after the battle Wellum was invalided out of the army, suffering from what we now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In his new book, written with Simon Pearson, author of the Sunday Times top 10 bestseller The Great Escaper, Wellum looks back his part in the battle, its impact on World War Two and how it affected his whole life. Both vivid testimony and trenchant analysis, Twilight of the Few is an eloquent reminder of June and July 1940 when 526 men - most like Wellum barely out of their teens - died in the skies over southern England.