As the Second World War moved into the final years, Canadians on the homefront were introduced to a new way to contribute to the war effort - by donating blood. The research by Dr. Charles Best and the Connaught Laboratories in Toronto produced a safe and convenient method for transferring the essential elements of blood in serum form to combat blood loss and shock on the front lines and military hospitals. In 1944 alone, Canadians contributed a million pints of blood destined for overseas.  The St. Thomas Times Journal took the call for donations to their subscribers by illustrating how local serving men benefited from the life saving gift - they did not shrink from raising the curtain on the severity of the injuries that required such a donation.  Captain Wynne Baldwin (wounded during D-Day operations), Captain Jack Jennings, (member of the Devil's Brigade-lost a leg when taking Rome), and Corporal Frank Oke, (lost a leg in Normandy while serving with the Hussars) all take the time to attest to the life-saving properties of this Canadian research.

When daylight came, we saw the magnitude of the operation. There were ships as far as one could see. At H-Hour, massive attacks on the beach defences were begun by naval units while bombers attacked from air. The biggest naval guns were directed at targets inland and they were still firing inland more than six weeks after D-Day. The shells coming through the sky sounded like trains as they passed over overhead.
 
The rocket ships provided the most spectacular sights. The rockets went off in groups of ten or so, with only seconds between groups. It was a fiery show as hundreds of rockets were shot from the banks of pipes on the decks of the rocket ships.