In which battle did J.R.R. Tolkien serve as a British Army signals officer during World War I?

J.R.R. Tolkien served as a British Army signals officer during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

Tolkien was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers and arrived on the Western Front in 1916. He served as a signals officer, helping maintain communication between units. He took part in the Somme offensive, one of the war’s largest and most destructive campaigns, before illness led to his evacuation from France.

Tolkien later drew on his wartime experiences when discussing the emotional background of some episodes in his fiction, although Middle-earth is not a direct allegory of World War I. Claims that every character or event maps exactly onto the war oversimplify his work. The Somme is nevertheless a major event in Tolkien’s biography and shaped the generation to which he belonged.