Which World War I battle did J.R.R. Tolkien take part in as a British Army officer?

J.R.R. Tolkien took part in the Battle of the Somme during World War I. He served as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers and arrived in France in 1916, during one of the war’s largest and bloodiest campaigns.

Tolkien served with the 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. The Somme offensive began on 1 July 1916, and British and French forces fought German troops across the Western Front. Tolkien worked as a signals officer, helping maintain communications under extremely dangerous conditions.

He became ill with trench fever later in 1916 and was sent back to Britain. The experience of the trenches, the loss of friends, and the landscape of the Western Front influenced aspects of his later imagination, although individual fictional scenes should not automatically be treated as direct allegories of particular battles.

The Battle of the Somme is sometimes confused with later battles in which Tolkien did not serve. His active military service ended after illness, and he spent much of the rest of the war in Britain.