In which military force did C.S. Lewis serve during World War I?

C.S. Lewis served in the British Army during World War I.

Lewis volunteered for military service while studying at Oxford and was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry. He served as a second lieutenant and was sent to France in November 1917. His wartime experience included trench warfare on the Western Front, where he fought during the German spring offensive of 1918.

Lewis was wounded at the Battle of Arras in April 1918 when fragments from a British shell struck him. He recovered in England and was discharged from the army in December 1918. His close friend Paddy Moore was killed in the same conflict, an event that deeply affected Lewis.

Lewis’s military service is sometimes confused with service in World War II. During the later war he was primarily known for Christian broadcasts, lectures, and public writing rather than frontline military duty.