WE'VE been lucky to have multiple responses after Looking Back reader Sally Smith asked for help in finding out more about this picture of a mass of searchlights in Weymouth bay.

Sally initially thought the photo was taken during the war but we've heard some different opinions on it. Here's what you told us.

Maurice Curtis of Weymouth said: "It was taken before the war. I was about seven-years-old. It was a searchlight tattoo and I think it was around 1937 or 1938. I don't know what it was in aid of but it might have been something to do with the Coronation. I remember seeing it at the time as a boy."

Maurice also remembers an aeroplane crashing on Weymouth seafront in 1937

"There was going to be a tidal wave at Weymouth and this plane was taking photos of it when it crashed into the sea. My father had pictures of it."

Maurice isn't sure whether there were any fatalities in the crash.

"I can't remember whether the pilot died or not, it was in all the papers."

Peter Price of Weymouth, however, thought the photo was taken in wartime in 1939 or 1940.

He said: "They only had three guns at the beginning of the war. They put all those searchlights up when the enemy came as they didn't have many guns. The searchlights were there to protect us."

Roger Holehouse got in touch and told us: "The warship in silhouette against the searchlights would be one of the three surviving WW1 built Caledon class light cruisers (Caledon, Calypso, Caradoc) which would be consistent with a 1930s date.

"The preceding, and visually similar, Centaur class (Centaur, Concord) went to scrap in 1933 and 1935 respectively so probably not them. There are a couple of battleships/cruisers visible just beyond."

Thanks also to the Dorset Echo website online commenters who also thought the searchlights picture was from the 1930s - James Farquharson said it could have been from the festivities put on for the Duke of York opening the town bridge in Weymouth, while 'Now Long Gone' thought it could have been from one of the four reviews of the fleet during the 1930s. 'Weymouth Ex-pat' very kindly referred us to an article online from the Western Gazette which shows a different photo that is very similar.

The Gazette article is from November 1934 and shows the searchlight display from battleships in Weymouth Bay and searchlight practise by the Royal Engineers at Weymouth Nothe 'which attracted hundreds of sightseers, few of whom realised what is going on in the ships or at the Nothe to cast the great beams across the sky.'

Thanks to everyone who provided us with feedback.