Tolkien himself has said that WWII was not a direct influence to any of the events or storylines in his writings, and that most of them were established before most of the events of WWII took place. He wrote about it in the forward of later editions to the Fellowship of the Ring, conceding that while no artist can deny being influenced by their surroundings, LotR is not meant to be a metaphor or analogy for anything, going so far as to say he prefers stories to be just stories.
Tolkien himself has said that WWII was not a direct influence to any of the events or storylines in his writings, and that most of them were established before most of the events of WWII took place. He wrote about it in the forward of later editions to the Fellowship of the Ring, conceding that while no artist can deny being influenced by their surroundings, LotR is not meant to be a metaphor or analogy for anything, going so far as to say he prefers stories to be just stories.