Battle of the Somme 90th Anniversary July 1st

[davem]

There's an interesting line in The Tolkien Family Album By Priscilla & John Tolkien, following on from the one I gave earlier:

'Years later he would compare these experiences with those of his son Michael, a soldier in the Second World War, who endured his share of horrors but was at least part of an army with motorised transport.'

Interesting enough, but what follows is perhaps more relevant:

Some remarkable relics survive from that time: a trench map he drew himself; pencil-written orders to carry bombs to the 'fighting line.'

John Garth comments:

At the same time Tolkien was appointed battalion signal officer...Tolkien was put in charge of all the unit's communications,...He needed to know the locations & station calls of all coordinating units; to be au fait withthe plans & intentions of Lieutenant-Colonel Bird, the CO; & to keep the Brigade informed about any unit movements or signals problems. But all this information had to be kept a close secret...

One Monday morning Tolkien was ordered to go with one other Subaltern ... & five sergeant majors to set up battalion headquarters in trenches yet further north...They found the front line itself badly blown in & impassable by daylight...

Proving what? Well, he compared his wartime experiences to those of Michael - seems likely they discussed their experiences together; he drew maps of the trenches, so its at least possible that he went out personally to survey the territory - possibly on horseback; he was responsible for providing vital information to his superior officers about troop locations & what the enemy was up to; He was ordered right up to the front line to set up Battalion HQ - how did they get there? Horseback?

Again, not a shred of proof that the incident described actually happened, but enough to make it a possibility at least.