verdun or somme which was bloodier >inb4 passchendaele fags

>>1905748
somme

Fun fact: Tolkien fought at the Somme and had the working manuscript for "The Hobbit" with him all through the war

>>1906213
Battle of unnumbered tears in the silmarillion is based off his experiences.

Verdun obviously.

The Somme has only lurked in the public opinion with such weight for the disappointment that it was on the British masses when Haig's artillery barrage achieved nothing, and the promised victory on the Somme was rapidly converted into the worst ever day for the British army. Only French veterans from Verdun who'd experienced that battle were capable of coordinating their artillery for their first day to be a success.

>The Fourth Army took 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 men were killed, the French Sixth Army had 1,590 casualties and the German 2nd Army had 10,000–12,000 losses.

We shouldn't dismiss either that the Somme was conceived merely as a diversion from Verdun.

I think that both battles were insanely horrible, but of the Somme and Verdun, Germans acknolewdge Verdun to be the more horrible of the two, and that is the battle imprinted on collective memory there.

Also Somme from what I recall: July-November.

Verdun: February-December.

>>1906213
He didnt start working on the Hobbit until he had kids, which was in the 20s and 30s.

In 1915 he was working on The Fall of Gondolin most likely, which is the first middle earth story he wrote.