urn:oclc:877046228 Scandate 20090814185344 Scanner scribe2.sheridan.archive.org Scanningcenter sheridan Worldcat (source edition) Mood Whiplash: The books are mostly light in tone, especially the pre-battle fatigue ones, but these are war diaries. In particular, the death of Lt. Goldsmith, a direct hit on the Command Post, and random macabre daydreams are sprinkled through the earlier books - the fact that these events often come right after the silliest moments makes them all the starker. It's particularly brutal listening to the audiobooks read by Milligan himself. Book Genre: Autobiography, Biography, Comedy, History, Humor, Memoir, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, War, World War II For instance, read how Milligan describes the tumultous emotions on one of those agonising nights when London is being bombed from the air at night:

Lt Goldsmith, who besides being a good officer (if not the best at map reading) and highly educated was also (on Milligan's account) witty, literate and kind. His death late in the second volume, from an enemy shell on Longstop Hill, proves especially demoralising to the men of the regiment, including Spike who poignantly recalls their last conservation prior to his departure.

Played straight with Spaghetti Napolitana, a very simple dish of pasta in a tomato sauce with onions, garlic and herbs, which Milligan loves so much that he admits he would like to be covered in a mountain of it so that he can eat his way out. Volume one of Spike Milligan's legendary memoirs is a hilarious, subversive first-hand account of WW2 Running Gag: From the second book onwards, Milligan uses pictures of British soldiers fighting in colonial wars from the Victorian period with captions suggesting they're supposed to be from the war - presumably a spoof on how the British Army tended to be underequipped and technologically inferior compared to the Germans. Small Name, Big Ego: Parodied. Milligan doing something is often followed by a 'Hitlergram' of senior Nazis concernedly discussing what Gunner Milligan is up to, as the entire fate of the war presumably rests on it.

Also, Bill Hall, the violin-playing leader of Milligan's first show business troupe, the Bill Hall Trio. Dressed like a tramp, looked like a corpse, frequently vanished for days on end and would only show up at showtime, but a phenomenal musician. At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked "This is your enemy". I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train . . .' On the other hand, there is a telling scene where Milligan's heavy guns are directed into a firing position in a boggy field where they sink into the mud under their own weight - the only powerful vehicles nearby that can tow them out belong to the American Army, who generously give their time and help, leading to angst in Jumbo Jenkins that "we've sunk so low as to ask the Americans for assistance". "We have sunk so low, sir. That's why we need them" replied Milligan.Anyway I recommend this book. There are moments of what might be called political correctness but this is Spike Milligan. A man of his time and not.

Adolf Hitler: My Part on His Downfall is volume One of Spike Milligan's outrageous, hilarious, legendary War Memoirs. Speech Impediment: Played for rather cruel laughs with the officer who pronounces the letter "d" is "g", telling Milligan "I'd like you to have your turn in the miggle of the show." On being asked the name of the band, Milligan tells him it's "D Battery Dance Duo with Doug on Drums". When the Second World War (as Spike called it, the Adolf Hitler Show) began, he enlisted and served in the 56th Heavy Regiment as a signaller. During his time in the army he joined the Bill Hall Trio and performed for the troops.This is an utterly surreal, joyous and irreverent look at Spike Milligan’s time as a young soldier in WWII. This book takes us from the outbreak of war through to the beginning of 1943 when Milligan arrives in Algiers. In between there is receiving his call up papers, endless training – none of which he appears to have had any aptitude for – and his first steps into ‘Show Business’ when he teams up with fellow jazz fans to play at dances. Milligan also quotes the memoirs of noted theatre director John Counsell, his sometime deputy battery commander, who noted the laughter in the ranks when Milligan was around, and then after the war, at the height of the Goons' fame, queued with his daughter for autographs. He received one that showed Milligan remembered him with respect and affection. This has to be one of the funniest war memoirs ever written. Spike brings his trademark manic eye to bear on his own experiences as a gunner in World War II and, while some of the events are tragic (obviously) you still barely get a chance to breathe between laughs. Badass Army: The 56th Heavy Regiment itself. Milligan reproduces with evident pride (but with no comment) a communication to the regimental commander, praising the regiment for its performance at the Battle of Longstop Hill, in which a captured German officer is quoted as having mistook the regiment for having been much bigger than it actually was, such was the rate of fire the gunners achieved.

Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Bombardier Syd Price smokes one, which Milligan says has a bowl so large "he hid in it during air raids." Milligan himself takes up pipe-smoking in Rommel? Gunner Who?, so as to not have to smoke the disliked V cigarettes.

Contains examples of:

America Won World War II: At one point the regiment parades through an Italian village in triumph only to realise the cheering crowds are yelling 'Hail the Americans!' The book has a tone of photo's and drawings which are a nice addition to the text, and fit well with the way the book is written. Too Awesome to Use: One of Spike's comrades feels this way about the atom bomb, getting angry that they 'wasted' it on the Japanese. "They should have used something cheaper, like gas stoves filled with shit!"