What was the name of the World War I battle where J.R.R. Tolkien served in 1916?

J.R.R. Tolkien served in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers and served as a battalion signals officer during the First World War.

Tolkien took part in the Somme offensive after training and deployment to France. He later contracted trench fever and was sent back to England in October 1916. The illness prevented his return to front-line service, although he remained in the army until 1919.

Biographers and scholars have debated how directly Tolkien’s wartime experiences shaped Middle-earth. The Battle of the Somme certainly formed a major part of his life, but Tolkien resisted simple one-to-one interpretations of his fiction. The battle should also be distinguished from Ypres, Verdun, and Passchendaele, other major First World War campaigns.