Yes, that is what some of this book, the first in the series of wartime memoirs by celebrated British comedian Spike Milligan (who was, coincidentally, the inspiration for Monty Python in the first place with his group act 'The Goon Show'), would feel like: hilarious, anarchic, almost brutally sarcastic, bawdy and guaranteed to leave you in splits. June 2nd, 1940, on a summer's day all mare's tails and blue sky we arrived at Bexhill-on-Sea, where I got off. Horn dogs, given to being slackers, dubious of authority and at once eager and afraid of the dual nature of war, boredom and violence. Abolutely hilarious and well written memoirs of Spike Milligan's time in the service (Part 1 at least). The presentation is an unusual format freely mixing narrative anecdotes, contemporary photography, excerpts from diaries, letters, rough sketches and performance programs, along with comic sketches and absurd fake memoranda from ranking Nazi officials; the hard facts are usually apparent.

Although they are disciplined and made to burn the clubs, it is here that the inspiration for The Goon Show began. The film is about Spike being drafted into the army at the beginning of WWII and covered his basic training. In this, the first of Spike Milligan's uproarious recollections of life in the army, our hero takes us from the outbreak of war in 1939 ('it must have been something we said'), through his attempts to avoid enlistment ('time for my appendicitis, I thought') and his gunner training in Bexhill ('There was one drawback. One issue was a large vacuum-sealed tin of ‘Emergency Chocolate’, only to be eaten in the event of, say, being surrounded by the Enemy.Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall is a 1973 British comedy film adaptation of the first volume of Spike Milligan's autobiography. During one training deployment, Milligan and others were caught hiding their rifles in a loft, resulting in two weeks detention.

He then plunged into the world of Show Business, seduced by his first stage appearance, at the age of eight, in the nativity play of his Poona convent school. I am amazed it took me so long to get around to reading Spike Milligan’s war memoirs, but I am truly glad that there are many more books to read.

Milligan then facetiously describes the last of them as being found "naked save for a vest one sock" sitting on the back of a lorry, "waiting to be posted". About then, in an attempt to impress girls at a gym, he slips a disc, whereupon he's hospitalised to determine whether he's faking. Since my copy of Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall is on Kindle and to get it out of the way there are some nice drawings throughout the book and they do not show well on a Kindle Viewer. The cast had a lot of potential too, We have Arthur Lowe of Dad's Army playing a similar role as the base Commander. The preface anticipates the book will be part of a trilogy; years later, the cover of the fourth volume said: "Don't be fooled this is the last, volume four of the war memoirs.

If you have ever watched the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger classic 'The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp', you would remember the frenetic comic frenzy of the first fifteen minutes, choreographed like a comic interlude. We were issued with an air-mail letter, in which we were allowed to say we'd arrived safe and sound. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.Adolf Hitler: My Part on His Downfall is volume One of Spike Milligan's outrageous, hilarious, legendary War Memoirs. Another reviewer speaks of having to look up the regular use of British Army Initials, (RSM is Regimental Sergeant Major, about as close to God as a new recruit is likely to get).

And, a very credible evocation, of the life of a conscript at the start of the war right down to the smelliness of the army uniforms and how nobody got the correct size. Spike's silliness is infectious and the book contains a winning combination of word play, self deprecating humour and social history.Another reason for reading this book from a more serious point of view is that so much of the humor is dated, insider and to a modern ear flat. Milligan refers to his first commanding officer as "Leather Suitcase" for the numerous leather patches on his uniform. Published in 1971, Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall is the first volume of the Spike Milligan's idiosyncratic military memoir. Milligan notes that until 1940 they were entertaining nightly, which he later saw as his first steps into show business.