Battle of Somme

Of all the battles in World War 1, perhaps the bloodiest of them all was the Battle of the Somme which occurred at the banks of the Somme River in France. The British with the French were in a joint operation to achieve victory over the Germans on the Western Front. The battle lasted for 141 days from 1st July 1916 to 19 November 1916 and the result was a stalemate. The allied suffered 600,000 casualties while the Germans suffered 500,000.,
One of the soldiers_experienced the trauma and guilt of it was J.R.R Tolkien (full name John Ronald Reuel Tolkien) who years later turned to writing fiction which he created the world of Lord of the Rings that helped him and us better understand war, human nature, loss and growth.