Nichols commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery
Poet involved
What happened
At the outbreak of the First World War Nichols left Oxford and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery in Britain, then posted toward the Western Front. He served as an artillery officer rather than an infantryman. The rank and arm of service later shape the command-and-barrage perspective of poems such as The Assault.
Literary impact
Officer service supplied the battery, countdown, and leadership vantage of his best-known war poems. Unlike private-soldier lyrics, his battle pieces keep an interior officer consciousness under fire.
Source: Wikipedia
