'Bristol blood donors save a soldier's life in Normandy', June 1944

Photograph, World War Two, North West Europe (1944-1945) 1944.

This picture, taken at a casualty clearing station in Normandy, shows Major C J Gordon of the Royal Army Medical Corps carrying out an operation on a soldier who had sustained a bullet wound in the abdomen. The wounded soldier was first given a blood transfusion to help him through the operation. The blood, which had been donated at Southmead Hospital in Bristol in the days following the D-Day landings, was flown direct to the front for use in dressing posts and casualty clearing stations.

From a collection of 33 British official photographs relating to D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, 1944.