Spike Milligan Classic War Memoirs Collection 7 Volume Set 
 
Digital E-Book
 
All 7 Volumes collected into a single eBook (917 pages).  In the Attachments sidebar there are Google Earth hyperlinks for each book showing major locations mentioned. 
 
Adolf Hitler my part in his Downfall
Rommel Gunner Who?
Monty His Part in my victory
Mussolini his part in my Downfall
Where have all the Bullets Gone?
Goodbye Solider
Peace Work
 
Milligan wrote this seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971).  During the Second World War, he served as a signaller in the 56th Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery, D Battery (later 19 Battery), as Gunner Milligan, 954024. The unit was equipped with the obsolete First World War era BL 9.2-inch howitzer and based in Bexhill on the south coast of England. Milligan describes training with these guns in part two of Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, claiming that, during training, gun crews resorted to shouting "bang" in unison as they had no shells with which to practise.
 
The unit was later re-equipped with the BL 7.2-inch howitzer and saw action as part of the First Army in the North African campaign and then in the succeeding Italian campaign. Milligan was appointed lance bombardier and was about to be promoted to bombardier when he was wounded in action in the Italian theatre at the Battle of Monte Cassino. Subsequently, hospitalized for a mortar wound to the right leg and shell shock, he was demoted by an unsympathetic commanding officer (identified in his war diaries as Major Evan "Jumbo" Jenkins) back to Gunner. It was Milligan's opinion that Major Jenkins did not like him, because Milligan constantly kept up the morale of his fellow soldiers, whereas Jenkins's approach was to take an attitude towards the troops similar to that of Lord Kitchener. An incident also mentioned was when Jenkins had invited Gunners Milligan and Edgington to his bivouac to play some jazz with him, only to discover that the musicianship of the gunners was far superior to his own ability to play the military tune "Whistling Rufus".