Spike Milligan's Wartime Autobiography

I first discovered Spike Milligan in the comedy section of a used bookstore, where I picked up a book called "Adolph Hitler: My Part in His Downfall. I was immediately drawn into his hilarious and heartfelt description of his time on the front lines in WWII. Milligan wrote this book both as a send up of the traditional wartime autobiography and also as a way to inject his own frenetic and surreal sense of humor into a time so bizarre that survival was only possible through humor.

One of the best parts of the 6 books I have read is a description of the fall of Tunis. He shipped out first to the North African battle, and he stayed on until Rommel was defeated. One of the most fascinating moments in the book is the time after the Germans had surrendered, and the Allies and Axis soldiers were wandering up and down the roads, chatting and hanging out with each other because they had nothing else to do.

Milligan believed beyond anything in the importance of the small man and his story. Post-war he organized a multitude of reunions, not just of his own regiment, but of soldiers who had actually fought against one another during specific battles. He discusses a reunion in which he and a German soldier figure out that they actually shot directly at each other, an officer present comments that their survival was due to their being "bloody awful shots."

But it's not all humor. Milligan discusses his bout with shell shock and subsequent removal from his beloved regiment in heartrending detail. It's a wonderful, honest discussion of shell shock, of trauma and of pain, in a series of books otherwise known for their lightheartedness. Milligan's black moods and traumas followed him through the rest of the books and his life.

In the 6th book Milligan is running around post-war Europe with a group of soldier artists. This is the least funny of the books, but contains a wonderfully true and sweet love story between Milligan and an innocent Italian dancer named Toni. He and Toni fall desperately in love, and by the end of the book he has decided to marry her, but returns to England after he is discharged from the service. I have never read the 7th book, but I tracked down the story of Toni. Milligan married several times, but he left Toni behind, although he sent her flowers every year for the rest of her life.

Milligan's story is essentially British, the working class boy's first trip to Europe, the joy of being young and in an adrenaline spiked environment. But somehow it speaks to me more than any other book I have ever read about war, it seems to hit some essential truths about war without making it seem grander or easier than it actually was. It is the polar opposite of "The Things They Carried", devoid of cynicism, but able to admit the pain of loss and death. It contains the poignancy of being young, of great love and great loss.