The Peking Plan"Peking" was one contemporary spelling for the city now spelled '

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

' in English. In modern Polish the name is written as "Pekin". Some modern Polish works refer to the "Pekin Plan". The original orders used the spelling "Peking". (or Operation Peking) was an operation in which three destroyers of the Polish Navy, the , , and , were evacuated to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in late August and early September 1939. They were ordered to travel to British ports and assist the British

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in the event of a war with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. The plan was successful and allowed the ships to avoid certain destruction or capture in the German invasion.

Background

The plan was created in order to remove the Destroyer Division (''Dywizjon Kontrtorpedowców'') of the Polish Navy from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

operation theatre. The ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

'' had a significant numerical advantage over the Polish Navy, and in the event of a war the Polish High Command realised that ships which remained in the Baltic Sea were likely to be quickly sunk by the Germans. Also, the Danish straits were well within the operational range of the Kriegsmarine and

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

, so there was little chance for the plan to succeed, if implemented after hostilities began. On 24 August 1939, the British government, through

Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart, head of the British Military mission, made strong representations to Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz, commander-in-chief of the Polish Forces, that the most modern elements of the fleet be evacuated from the Baltic Sea. Although Śmigły-Rydz resisted the idea at first, he finally agreed. Part of Śmigły-Rydz's reason for so doing was the idea of a Romanian Bridgehead. It was hoped the Polish forces could hold out in the southeast of the country, near the common border with Romania, until relieved by a Franco-British offensive. The western powers could send munitions and arms via Romanian ports and railways, and the Polish Navy would escort the ships delivering the supplies to Romanian ports.

Docking at Edinburgh

As tensions between Poland and Germany increased, the Commander of the Polish Fleet, Counter Admiral Józef Unrug signed the order for the operation on 26 August 1939, a day after the signing of the Polish-British Common Defence Pact. The order was delivered in sealed envelopes to the ships' command. On 29 August, the fleet received the signal "Peking, Peking, Peking" from the Polish Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Śmigły-Rydz: "Execute Peking". At 12:55 hours, the ships received the signal via signal flags or radio from the signal tower at Oksywie. The respective commanders of the ships opened the envelopes and departed at 14:15 under the command of Komandor porucznik Roman Stankiewicz. ''Błyskawica'' was commanded by Komandor porucznik Włodzimierz Kodrębski, ''Burza'' by Komandor podporucznik Stanisław Nahorski and ''Grom'' by Komandor porucznik Aleksander Hulewicz. The ships sailed without any problems through the Baltic, entering Øresund after midnight. In the passage they encountered the German light cruiser ''Königsberg'' and a destroyer, but as the war had not yet started there was no combat. The Polish ships then passed through the

Kattegat The Kattegat (; ; ) is a sea area bounded by the peninsula of Jutland in the west, the Danish straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the Swedish provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Scania in Swede ...

and

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (; , , ) is a strait running between the North Jutlandic Island of Denmark, the east coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea. The Skagerrak contains some of the busiest shipping ...

. On 31 August, the ships were spotted and followed by German reconnaissance seaplanes, and the group changed course towards

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

in order to shake off the pursuit during the night, when they returned to their original course towards the UK. The ships entered the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, and at 0925 on 1 September learned about the German invasion of Poland. At 12:58, they encountered the

destroyers and and received a liaison officer. At 17:37, they docked in

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

, the port of

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Aftermath in Allied Forces

The Peking Plan generated controversy in Poland, but it proved to be a wise decision. The ships and their crews served alongside the Royal Navy throughout the war (the ORP ''Burza'' and ORP ''Błyskawica'' survived the war, whereas the ORP ''Grom'' was sunk on 4 May 1940 in the Rombaken fjord, near

Narvik () is the third-largest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. Some of the notable villag ...

, during the Norwegian Campaign). 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. The two remaining major warships of the Polish fleets, the destroyer ''Wicher'' and the heavy minelayer ''Gryf'', were both sunk by 3 September 1939. 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. Image:ORP Burza Gdynia Muzeum.jpg, ORP ''Burza'' Image:Blyskawica l d.jpg, ORP ''Błyskawica'' Image:ORP-Grom.jpg, ORP ''Grom''

Background

Docking at Edinburgh

Aftermath in Allied Forces

See also

Notes

References

Further reading