Reviews found online

Both poignant and funny

Anyone who has listened to the Goons will know that Spike is one of those rare people who has an innate knack for comic writing.

`Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall is the first volume of Spikes war memoirs and I read this plus the second volume (Rommel? Gunner Who?) in a single sitting.

In the first volume, Spike puts his own unique spin on his experiences in WW2 starting from training at Bexhill-on-Sea (and not a batter-pudding hurler in sight!) to his posting in North Africa and manages to be laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely sad at the same time. I dont normally go for `war stories but this is a genuine telling-it-like-it-is tale modified by Milligans unique genius.

Its a good read in its own right, but any Goon fan will immediately notice the genesis of Goons-type humour in Spikes exchanges with his mate Harry Edgington (we dont encounter the `other Harry until the end of book two!)

For best results, read in conjunction with `Rommel? ... but dont do it in a public place - youll probably laugh too much!

I rate Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall - 5/5

The beginning of a long, delightfully nutty journey

Before there was Python, there were the Goons. And before the Goons, there was Spike Milligan. In the six-book series that begins with "Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall", Milligan charts his own odyssey through World War II.

Theres plenty of Milliganesque lunacy here, many many laughs, and not a little pathos, all told in an unabashedly sentimental and frequently endearingly naive tone. From the first page, where "a man named Chamberlain who did Prime Minister impressions got on the radio and said we were at war with Germany" to induction, training and eventual departure for North Africa, Milligan captures the essential unpreparedness and paradoxically indomitable spirit that infused the British war effort. The results are touched both by Milligans own manic humor and the black depression that was its counterpart, and against which he struggled for much of his life.

A warning- Milligans prose is addictive. You will not be able to stop with "Hitler", but will be forced into the continuing story in "Rommel? Gunner Who?", "Monty: His Part in My Victory" and "Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall". It just gets more loony, but its a must-read.

I rate Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall - 4/5

Funny, and yet so sad

Im usually not one to read autobios, but since it is Spike Milligan I made the exception. It was funny, just as I expected it to be, but there were parts that were very moving and sad; as should be expected I suppose for a WWII novel. His accounts of the absurd are always dead on hilarious, and I found myself reading a passage over and over and just cracking up.
I knew that Spike suffered from depression, and I think in parts it was very apparent. The places that are especially poignant are when he relates a humorous tale, and then explain how he visited the place years later, and how the memories are too much for him to bear. In one particular paragraph he laments: "Oh, Yesterday, how you plague me!"
I love Spike Milligan and his comedy, and have read several run-of-the-mill internet bios on him but his own biography really brings him to life. A great read!

I rate Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall - 5/5

The start of a Wonderful, Emotional, Hilarious Journey

These books stand out like nothing else I've ever read.
I've never had such heart felt love for any book, as I do for this entire marvellous series.
Constant spirit lifting hilarity just keeps you laughing for hours on end. Not to say that it doesn't have moments that bring home the harsh reality of what these boys were facing.
To hear Spike reading some of the sadder moments, is truly heartbreaking, but to hear the way he talks of his beloved band of brothers, you can feel the fondness he has for each and every one of them...(well...okay..not all of them..)
Through some of the more hysterical parts of the books, Spike's fits of giggles just add such a spark to this work, and make you feel just like he's sitting reminiscing with you.
I can't praise this entire series highly enough.
If Spike ever tickled your funny bone in any way, then this will tickle you silly.

Buy it,you won't be disappointed

Excellent war memoirs

I've now read all of Spike Milligan's war memoirs and think they're excellent (I'm also not a big fan of the Goons). While generally very funny you can really sense his depressive moods even at times when he's not explicit about them.

A British friend gave me the paperback

And I haven't stopped laughing. I had never heard of Spike Milligan before, but I found his book funny in a way that only the Brits can be, and touching with many moving parts about the war from a crazy man's perspective. I have since read five other Spike Milligan books, and none of them were a disappointment. Seeing WWII from Spike's point of view is realistic, funny, and very thought provoking.

My British friend told me he (Spike) was crazy. At first I thought that was just a saying, but it's true. Spike is mentally defunct, in a very happy and bubbly kind of way. You will enjoy this book

A Goon's memories of WW2

In one of the funniest autobiographies I have read, Spike Milligan brings his sense of the ridiculous to his life as a gunner in the British army during WW2. This is the first in a series of autobiographical books that describe his wartime experiences. It covers a brief outline of his family history and the period from just before the war to just before his unit embarks for service overseas.

Spike Milligan's sense of humor permeates the book, and to my mind works really well. However if you don't like the sort of British humor used by the Goons (or their cousins/descendants, Monty Python) then this could be a problem.

I first read this book as a kid at school. I couldn't put it down then, and got some very strange looks from teachers for laughing out loud for no apparent reason (they couldn't see the book - and I didn't and don't usually laugh out loud while reading or sitting in class).

Reading it again, the book is still a delight. An offbeat view of the world that looks at ordinary men coping with extraordinary and difficult times.

This is a fascinating and very personal account of the wartime experiences of one of the most original British humorists

one of the funniest ever

I usually don't like war memoirs but I'd read anything by this guy. It is one of the funniest and most original books ever. Spike Milligan is a one-off and I'm so disappointed it's out of print. Our family's copy has fallen to bits cause so many people have read it. It should definitely be put into print again AND SOON!

Has anybody seen our gun? No, what colour is it?

This is a review of the series of seven embellished autobiographies as a whole, rather than just this one book. "Adolf Hitler:..." sees our skinny hero called up to serve his country in 1940 and introduces many of the other characters - particularly those involved in the genesis of The Goon Show. In subsequent books the war takes Spike to Africa, Italy and Liberated Europe and is a wonderful insight of those turbulent times through the eyes of a sometimes scared, sometimes overbearingly joyful, sometime shellshocked trumpet playing clown from London.

This series takes you through the ups and downs: the death of friends, the pining for a world forever changed, romance in Capri, continual banter between friends, cold collation and the bloody awful Warsaw concerto. The first book was written in 1973 (I think) and the last was sometime in the early nineties; and you can definitely see the change in Spike as his writes the later books - the pathos is much stronger, the notes about wartime friends who recently died are truly moving. Spike acknowledges he is writing history, but that "I spiced mine up a bit". It's the history of wartorn and postwar europe from the individual man's perspective - a man who eats pasta on italian balconies, drinking cheap red wine until he passes out; who plays raucous tunes and chases the girls; who always goes for the punch line - but it's also the eulogy of his wartime friends, friends he loved. It also explains (in part) how Spike Milligan, as we know him, came to be.

Free flowing comedy counterchanged with pathos and bathos - it's all there and I love every word.

The other books are "Rommel? Gunner Who?", "Monty: His Part in My Victory", "Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall", "Where Have All the Bullets Gone?", "Goodbye Soldier" and "Peace Work".

Funny, and yet so sad

I'm usually not one to read autobios, but since it is Spike Milligan I made the exception. It was funny, just as I expected it to be, but there were parts that were very moving and sad; as should be expected I suppose for a WWII novel. His accounts of the absurd are always dead on hilarious, and I found myself reading a passage over and over and just cracking up.

I knew that Spike suffered from depression, and I think in parts it was very apparent. The places that are especially poignant are when he relates a humorous tale, and then explain how he visited the place years later, and how the memories are too much for him to bear. In one particular paragraph he laments: "Oh, Yesterday, how you plague me!"

I love Spike Milligan and his comedy, and have read several run-of-the-mill internet bios on him but his own biography really brings him to life. A great read!

Excellent war memoirs

I've now read all of Spike Milligan's war memoirs and think they're excellent (I'm also not a big fan of the Goons). While generally very funny you can really sense his depressive moods even at times when he's not explicit about them.

A British friend gave me the paperback.

And I haven't stopped laughing. I had never heard of Spike Milligan before, but I found his book funny in a way that only the Brits can be, and touching with many moving parts about the war from a crazy man's perspective. I have since read five other Spike Milligan books, and none of them were a disappointment. Seeing WWII from Spike's point of view is realistic, funny, and very thought provoking.

My British friend told me he (Spike) was crazy. At first I thought that was just a saying, but it's true. Spike is mentally defunct, in a very happy and bubbly kind of way. You will enjoy this book.