Galadriel of the Olden wrote:
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Are there any biographies of Tolkien that go into detail about his life at war?
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Well, no, but we do have his letters! Not from WW I, but all the letters he sent during WW II to his son Christopher.
If you want to know more of Tolkien's thoughts and opinions, I can strongly recommend "The letters of JRR Tolkien" !(See also the thread "Gems from the letters" in "Books"
Here an example, from letter #64, written 1944
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The utter stupid waste of war, not only material but moral and spiritual, is so staggering to those who have to endure it. And always was (despite of the poets) , and always will be (despite the propagandists) - not of course that it has not is and will be necessary to face it in an evil world.
But so short is human memory and so evanescent are its generations that in only about 30 years there will be few or no people with that direct experience which alone goes really to the heart. The burnt hand teaches most about fire.
I sometimes feel appalled at the thought of the sum total of human misery all over the world at the present (.........)
And the product of it all will be mainly evil - historically considered. But the historical version is, of course , not the only one. All things and deeds have a value in themselves, apart from their "causes" and "effects". No man can estimate what is really happening at the present sub specie aeternitatis. All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labours with vast power and perpetual success- in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in. So it is in general, and so it is in our own lives.
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Something else about war, which impressed me, is Meneldur's speech in "Aldarion and Erendis " (U.T.)
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To prepare or to let be?
To prepare for war, which is yet only guessed: train craftsmen and tillers in the midst of peace for bloodspilling and battle: put iron in the hands of greedy captains who will love only conquest, and count the slain as their glory? Will they say to Eru: "At least your enemies were amongst them" ?
Or to fold hands, while friends die unjustly: let men live in blind peace, until the ravisher is at the gate? What then will they do: match naked hands against iron and die in vain, or flee, leaving the cries of women behind them? Will they say to Eru: "At least I spilled no blood" ?
When either way may lead to evil, of what worth is choice?
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