Peking Plan

The plan was created in order to remove the Destroyer Division (Dywizjon Kontrtorpedowców) of the Polish Navy from the Baltic Sea operation theatre.

Also, the Danish straits were well within the operational range of the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe, so there was little chance for the plan to succeed, if implemented after hostilities began.

On 31 August, the ships were spotted and followed by German reconnaissance seaplanes, and the group changed course towards Norway in order to shake off the pursuit during the night, when they returned to their original course towards the UK.

On the other hand, all the other surface ships of the Polish Navy which had remained in the Baltic were engaged and sunk or captured by the German fleet, starting with the Battle of the Gdańsk Bay on 1 September.

[2] As for the Germans, in the face of the Peking Plan on 30 August, they recalled from the Baltic Sea the tactical unit which had been assigned to engage them — the three light cruisers Nürnberg, Köln and Leipzig, under Vice-Admiral Hermann Densch.