Then and Now

I’ve always found the comparative photographs showing photographs from the 1940s and how those same locations look today. In the past you would have needed to physically go the locations to take those comparative photographs, however with tools such as Google Street View you can now find the same locations online.

The harbours of Weymouth and Portland were one of the biggest departure points for US troops with over 500,000 military personnel, including support staff, and 144,000 vehicles.

This is a circa late May or early June 1944 photograph of U.S. Rangers marching through Weymouth in Dorset, en route to board landing ships for the invasion of France.

Weymouth in 1944

Using Google Street View you can get a similar contemporary view of Weymouth.

contemporary view of Weymouth

You can actually see very little has changed since 1944, the hotel has changed its name and the buildings have been repainted, but the substance of the buildings have changed very little.

54mm D-Day

The final set of photographs of the evocative 54mm scale D-Day model at the Nothe Fort in Weymouth.

Landing Craft at D-Day

In the depths of the Nothe Fort in Weymouth (as well as a civillian nuclear bunker (now abandoned)) there is a really beautiful 54mm scale model of the D-Day landings. Lots of different models in there including an Horsa glider.

Beachead

Landing...

It is a representative model and does not reflect an actual beachhead.

First set of pictures, second set of pictures.

More 54mm D-Day

In the depths of the Nothe Fort in Weymouth (as well as a civillian nuclear bunker (now abandoned)) there is a really beautiful 54mm scale model of the D-Day landings. Lots of different models in there including an Horsa glider.

Landing on the beaches

Churchill Tank

D-Day

Here are some more photographs that I posted earlier. It is a representative model and does not reflect an actual beachhead.