Which World War I battle did J.R.R. Tolkien experience in 1916?

J.R.R. Tolkien experienced the Battle of the Somme in 1916 during the First World War.

Tolkien served as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers and was sent to France in June 1916. He took part in the Somme offensive, one of the war’s largest and deadliest campaigns. After several months, he became ill with trench fever and was returned to England in October 1916.

The war affected Tolkien’s life deeply. Many of his close school friends were killed, and his experiences became part of the historical and emotional background scholars discuss when examining his fiction. The landscapes, loss, fellowship, and endurance in his writing are sometimes compared with wartime experience, though Tolkien resisted simple one-to-one allegorical readings.

The Somme is often confused with later battles in which Tolkien did not serve, such as Passchendaele. His active service ended after illness in 1916, although he remained in the army for the rest of the war and performed duties in England.