At which battle of World War I did J.R.R. Tolkien serve in 1916?

J.R.R. Tolkien served at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Tolkien was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers during the First World War. He arrived in France in June 1916 and took part in the Somme offensive, one of the war’s largest and bloodiest campaigns.

He served as a battalion signals officer and became ill with trench fever later that year. His illness led to his return to England, and he spent the remainder of the war in Britain. Nearly all of his close comrades from his school-era circle were killed in the conflict.

The Somme is sometimes linked too directly to particular scenes in Middle-earth. Tolkien rejected simple one-to-one allegories, although his wartime experiences clearly formed part of the historical background to his imagination.