In the event of invasion, the intention was that the advancing German forces would have been held up at the Coquet Stop Line 30 miles to the north in Northumberland, enabling the British GHQ field army to take up positions on the Tyne.
As soon as an invasion was confirmed, members of the 280th Field Company, Royal Engineers (based in Yorkshire), would rapidly advance north via Durham, Leadgate, Ebchester and Hexham and blow up more than 100 road, rail and foot bridges on the Tyne from the Rede Valley to Scotswood.
Industrialists met with the Regional Commissioner and the Military to arrange a scorched earth plan for Tyneside's major industries.
locomotives would disappear along country lines south of the Tyne (such as the Victoria Garesfield branch line) and then be disabled; on the Tyne and along the coast docks would be blocked and machinery disabled; fuel stores would be destroyed; the ferry landings at North and South Shields would be blown up and the ferries scuttled; and all major explosive and ammunition dumps would have their stocks either blown up or otherwise destroyed.
A network of local HQs and supply stores were set up at locations such as Manors Railway Station, the Royal Grammar School and the Newcastle Co-op premises on Newgate Street.