Rommel? Gunner Who?: A Confrontation in the Desert (War Biography Vol. 2)

by Spike Milligan

Book Overview

VOLUME TWO OF SPIKE MILLIGAN'S LEGENDARY MEMOIRS IS A OUTRAGEOUS, HILARIOUS WW2 MEMOIRS 'Brilliant verbal pyrotechnics, throwaway lines and marvelous anecdotes' Daily Mail'Desperately funny, vivid,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140041079
• Release Date: April 1976
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.0" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Hilarious, poignant tale of an extraordinary ordinary guy

You have to start with "Adolf Hitler, My Part in his Downfall" to make the most of this book but it stands well in its own right. Spike put more reflection into this book as this is the account of when he entered battle with the enemy. Friends died, adventures were had and they lived as best they could. Spike's humor comes through well but this is also a great look into the everyday life of the soldiers in the British Army early in the war. The drawings are rough but evocative, with the intensity of the times showing through.

Jokes, More Jokes, And Tragedy

Milligan can't help himself: he'd be making goony jokes while being eaten by a lion. Here, in the second volume of his war memoirs, he's typically rumbustious and full of bad puns and silliness right in the middle of fighting the war in Northern Africa. He explains the dreadful boredom of waiting for battle and the utterly unreal experience of battle itself: being strafed and bombed and shelled, with loved friends dying a few feet away. He never dwells on the tragedy of war, but you can tell that, thirty or forty years later, he still feels the devastation and loss amidst the japes and jibes. This is a great war memoir. You really feel what he felt-- the confusion and misery and sometimes the giddy exhilaration of living when others died. You'll laugh out loud at his antics, and you'll see the simple bravery of the British Tommies in WWII. Recommended.

A wonderful war memoir...

A very quick and surprisingly engrossing book. ROMMEL is just as good if not better than its predecessor, Adolf hitler: My Part in His downfall. Milligan does a fantastic job of juggling the humor and the tragedy without overwhelming the reader with the events of the times. His sad nostalgia isn't as pronounced as it is in DOWNFALL, but it is there, as he does take time out from reminiscing to hammer out a paragraph about how he longs for the old days. His writing makes those who never experienced it long for it as well.

Amazingly Funny

This book written by a comedy genius was both marvellously funny and desperately sad at times. I thoroughly enjoyed the bit about the gun going over the edge

WW2 Memoir by a Goon

A continuation of the biography that started with "Adolf Hitler; my part in his downfall". Spike Milligan brings his sense of the ridiculous to the very serious business of war and his personal experience as a gunner in the British army in the Middle East.At times hilarious, occasionally tragic, the book portrays ordinary men doing their bit for the war effort. 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. In any case, this is a fascinating and very personal account of the wartime experiences of one of the most original British humorists. Especially recommended reading if you have read the first book in the series "Adolf Hitler; my part in his downfall".