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Newcastle played a major role during the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, and was a leading centre for coal mining, shipbuilding, engineering, munitions and manufacturing. Heavy industries in Newcastle declined in the second half of the 20th century; with office, service and retail employment now becoming the city's staples.

HMS King George V was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Walker Naval Yard, Newcastle upon Tyne; she was laid down on 1 January 1937, launched on 21 February 1939 and commissioned on 11 December 1940.

After the 1927 merger, the company possessed a major yard on each coast of Britain; the Naval Construction Yard of Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and the Naval Yard of Armstrong Whitworth at High Walker on the River Tyne. Vickers-Armstrongs was one of the most important warship manufacturers in the world.

During World War II, Sunderland’s port, coalmine and shipyards made it a prime target for Hitler’s bombers. Disabling Sunderland’s shipyards would have been a particularly attractive prospect as the disruption to the area would have had knock-on effects across the United Kingdom.

Despite its ups and downs, Sunderland had long been hailed as the largest shipbuilding town in the world. The 169,001 tons built by Sunderland’s shipyards in 1938 is overshadowed by Clyde’s 286,420. However, according to J.W. Smith and T.S. Holden in ‘Where ships were born’, crucially the latter’s production was spread across a number of locations, whereas Sunderland’s was concentrated in one town.