Shortly after, Tippet left Ireland. The Dublins had suffered severe casualties at Hulluch, near Loos, and replacements were urgently needed. On 14 May 1916, he was posted to France in the build-up to the Somme offensive, serving on attachment to the 8th (Service) Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 48th Infantry Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division throughout the Somme campaign. Tippet is listed among the officers who took part in the Battle of Ginchy from 3 to 10 September 1916. On 6 July 1917 his attachment to 8th Battalion ended and from 9 July he was appointed Staff Captain GSO3 attached to the 1/1 Herts, 118th Infantry Brigade, 39th Division, in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres where 118th Brigade saw action. No record exists of his military actions although, many years later, his step-son wrote that he had fought gallantly and Hansen refers to him as a war hero. He was mentioned in dispatches on 7 November 1917 for gallantry at Passchendaele and from March to April 1918 he took part in the First Battles of the Somme. 39th Division took heavy casualties in helping to prevent the Germans from breaking through to the coast during which Tippet suffered a head wound from shrapnel and he was subsequently awarded the Military Cross; an award given for "an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy", along with the standard campaign medals.