In a hole in the trench there lived a soldier

[Rumil]

Hi Inzil,

yes indeed, the Foreword is a bit vague about when JRRT 'stalled' on writing LoTR, it might be interesting to check through HoME for dates and see if there are any relationships between current affairs and the progress of the book, but I don't have the patience for that!

As for the Battle of Britain, maybe Beregond and Pippin looking out from the White Walls of Minas Tirith while Nazgul wheel overhead might chime with looking out from the White Cliffs of Dover during the Battle? But I think this is getting a bit tenuous.

The burnings in Rohan possibly, but these aren't closely described in the books, maybe Sam's vision of the Burning of the Shire might be relevant, or Frodo's comment regarding an invasion of dragons!

I also vaguely remember a thread about Tolkien being approached by the ULTRA organisation or similar at Bletchley regarding his expertise in German linguistics, but apparently nothing much came of it.