YOU get the feeling that Gunner Spike Milligan didn't take The Second World War very seriously.
No matter what The Hun threw at him he always had a ready quip. There's no doubt that his sense of humour was his ultimate defence against the atrocities happening around him. War may not have been a laughing matter but it was better than crying about it.
Spike's anarchic diaries of that time were used for his acclaimed book
Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall and the irreverent romp through the comedian's early years in the army, has now been made into a sensational play running at
Watford Palace Theatre this week.
Life was exceptionally unconventional for young Milligan even before he was called up. Once drafted into the Royal Artillery he appears to have spent more time playing his trumpet than blowing a hole in Hitler's frontline.
Sent to fight in the North African campaign the maverick Tommy with a penchant for jazz and insubordination gets through the rigours of combat and stupefying inertia with comedy.
It's only when sent to Italy and on a particularly hazardous mission (while suffering from a bad case of piles) that war loses its charm for Milligan.
Adapting the book for the stage has been done with affection by fans and playwrights Tim Carroll and Ben Power.
The comedy is as delightfully silly as the man himself but there are moments, when friends are killed, or Spike himself comes a little too close to his own mortality, when you can see through the comic veneer to the underlying tragedy of the situation.
The balloon goes up in a pre-fab hut on a ENSA show and Spike, naked in a bath of bubbles and blowing his horn, takes centre stage with his chums from Battery D.
The rest of the show is a series of sketches, anecdotes told with jazz accompaniment, of the buffoon's time in active (though often inactive) service.
Much relies on the production's central character, Terence Alan Milligan, known as Spike, and played with startling confidence by newcomer Sholto Morgan.
It's hard to believe the actor doesn't have more experience. He's on stage the entire two hours and always demands attention - whether delivering a lengthy monologue or acting out a scene.
Morgan bears some resemblance to the young squaddie, and occasionally overdoes the facial gurning, but he captures the essence of a man walking a fine line between insanity and lunacy.
It really is difficult to believe Milligan was the full packet – until you look into Morgan's eyes and see that behind the comedy was a man crying out in pain.
The talented and versatile cast play out a series of characters that made Milligan's war almost bearable. His best mate Harry Edginton (Dominic Gerrard) is never found far from a mug of tea – even when he's being blown up - and is a dab hand at the piano.
David Morely Hale turns up as the Cockney gunner Kidgell who plays guitar and regales everyone with tales of visits to whorehouses, later,the rather posher Major Jenkins and a brief cameo of a naked Scots gunner.
Actor Matthew Devereaux shoots around as the show's MC, a clichéd army major, Hitler, and a saxophonist while William Findley plays the drums as Goldsmith.
The jokes come thick and fast, some funnier than others, and the show has the informal air of a Cambridge revue or Edinburgh Fringe production.
There's no doubt that if Hitler and Milligan had ever come face to face the fuhrer would have capitulated. Some audiences around the country have been harder to crack but the men certainly won the battle with the first night Palace crowd.
Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall runs until Saturday. For tickets call the box office 01923 225671 or go online www.watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk