February 11

1940: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a trade agreement that provides for the delivery of vital war materials (grains, oil, strategic minerals) by the Soviets.
1945: In the East, the Red Army has encircled the fortress city of Küstrin on the Oder.
source:
http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1951: Chinese offensive, Korea - Chinese launch their fourth phase offensive in Korea.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1862 - SecNav directs formation of organization to evaluate new inventions and technical development which eventually led to National Academy of Science.
1971 - U.S. and USSR sign a treaty prohibiting the deployment of nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1939 - Lockheed P-38 flies from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.
1943 - World War II: General Dwight Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
1973 - Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_11

1942: The German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, as well as the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, escape from the French port of Brest and make a mad dash up the English Channel to safety in German waters. The Gneisenau and Scharnhorst had been anchored at Brest since March 1941. The Prinz Eugen had been tied to the French port since the Bismarck sortie in May 1941, when it and the battleship Bismarck made their own mad dash through the Atlantic and the Denmark Strait to elude Royal Navy gunfire. All three were subject to periodic bombing raids--and damage--by the British, as the Brits attempted to ensure that the German warships never left the French coast. But despite the careful watch of British subs and aircraft, German Vice Admiral Otto Ciliax launched Operation Cerberus to lead the ships out of the French port. The Germans, who had controlled and occupied France since June 1940, drew British fire deliberately, and the Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, and Prinz Eugen used the resulting skirmish as a defensive smoke screen. Six German destroyers and 21 torpedo boats accompanied the ships for protection as they moved north late on the night of February 11.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

February 12

1943: German troops of Heeresgruppe A (von Weichs) evacuate Krasnodar and reach the defensive positions in the Kuban bridgehead.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Luga.
1945: At Yalta, Rooevelt, Chrchill and Stalin end their conference, with agreements on the Allied occupation of Germany, the founding of the United Nations, the "resettlement" of the inhabitants of the Eastern German territories to be ceded to Poland, and the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan. Thus far, 374,00 German refugees have been evacuated by sea from East and West Prussia. Peru declares war against Germany.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1900: Pink Hill, Cape Colony, South Africa - Pink Hill, held by Victorian, South Australian and British troops was attacked by a superior Boer force resulting in the deaths of seven Australians and the wounding of 22 others.
1940: First convoy of second AIF reaches the Middle East - Australia's first land campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa against the Italians.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1429 - English Forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orleans from attack by the Comte de Clermont and John Stuart in the Battle of Rouvray (also known as the Battle of the Herrings).
1973 - Vietnam War: The first United States prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_12

1945 - USS Batfish (SS-310) sinks second Japanese submarine within three days
1947 - First launching of guided missile (Loon) from a submarine, USS Cusk
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1915: One of the biggest air raids of World War I occurs when 34 planes from the British Naval Wing attack the German-occupied coastal towns of Blankenberghe, Ostend and Zeebrugge in Belgium.
1941: German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, Libya, with the newly formed Afrika Korps, to reinforce the beleaguered Italians' position.
In January 1941, Adolf Hitler established the Afrika Korps for the explicit purpose of helping his Italian Axis partner maintain territorial gains in North Africa. The British had been delivering devastating blows to the Italians; in three months they pushed the Italians out of Egypt while wounding or killing 20,000 Italian soldiers and taking another 130,000 prisoner.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

February 13

1945: The RAF launches a heavy attack (over 800 bombers in two separate waves, which is followed the next day by 400 bombers of the US 8th Air Force) against Dresden that incinerates the inner city and kills between 150,000 and 200,000 civilians, including tens of thousands of refugees from the East and hundreds of Allied prisoners of war; it is by far the most deadly and devastating air raid of the Second World War. On the Eastern front in Pommerania, the Red Army captures Schneidemül.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces capture Budapest, Hungary from the Nazis.
1971 - Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_13

1946: Main Australian contingent of BCOF sailed for Japan from Morotai -Australian personnel played a prominent role in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan at the conclusion of the Second World War in the Pacific. They were allotted the devastated Hiroshima Prefecture on the island of Honshu.
1965: 1st Australian SAS Squadron advance party departs for Borneo -The SAS served in Borneo during Confrontation to gather intelligence, conduct reconnaissance patrols and collect information on topography.
Source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1965: Johnson approves Operation Rolling Thunder - President Lyndon B. Johnson decides to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that he and his advisers have been contemplating for a year.
Source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1940: Russian troops capture forts on Karelia Isthmus.
1944: The allies halt the German attack around Cassino. The Italians in Cassino Monastery are warned that it will be bombed. Another British counter-offensive begins in Arakan, Burma.
1945: U.S. troops capture the last Japanese naval base and airfield on Luzon.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/

1854 - Admiral Perry anchors off Yokosuka, Japan to receive Emperor's reply to treaty proposal
1913 - Naval Radio Station, Arlington, VA begins operations
1945 - First naval units enter Manila Bay since 1942
1968 - Operation Coronado XI begins in Mekong Delta
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

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February 14

1943: German troops of Heeresgruppe Don (von Manstein) evacuate Rostov and withdraw to the old Mius line. In Tunisia, 5.Panzerarmee (von Arnim) forces the retreat of the US 2nd Corps (Fredenhall) in the battle of Kasserine Pass.
1945: On the Eastern front in Silesia, the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front (Konev) encircles Breslau which has been declared a fortress under the command of Gauleiter Hanke. Uruguay declares war against Germany.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1900: The relief of Kimberley, Orange Free State, South Africa, was a major operation undertaken to break the Boer siege of the town. 500 Australians of the Queensland Mounted Infantry, New South Wales Mounted Rifles and New South Wales Lancers were involved in the breaking of the siege as part of the cavalry division commanded by Lieutenant-General John French.
1942: SS Vyner Brooke sunk. The Vyner Brooke, carrying 65 Australian nurses and other refugees from Singapore, was sunk by Japanese aircraft one day after leaving the island. The survivors made their way to Banka Island where one group of nurses were massacred by their Japanese captors. Only Sister Vivian Bullwinkel survived the massacre.
Source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1797 - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent & Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson led the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent near Gibraltar.
1831 - Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
1879 - The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
1944 - World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
1945 - Bombing of Dresden in World War II: The BritishRoyal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force begin fire-bombingDresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.

1941: Kurmuk near the Ethiopian border in Sudan is recaptured by British forces. Leading elements of the German 5th Light Division arrive at Tripoli and are immediately moved up to Sirte to take up defensive positions.
1942: The Japanese being their invasion of Sumatra with airborne landings at Palembang.
1944: The Americans announce that the Japanese remaining in Solomon Islands are now trapped. Eisenhower sets up the SHAEF HQ in Britain.
1945: The British Indian 4th Corps begins to cross Irrawaddy and strike into the Japanese rear. The first use of napalm is made in Burma. Canadian and British troops reach the Rhine, 40 miles Northwest of Duisberg.
Source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/

1779: Patriots defeat Loyalists at Kettle Creek - A Patriot militia force of 340 led by Colonel Andrew Pickens of South Carolina with Colonel John Dooly and Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke of Georgia defeats a larger force of 700 Loyalist militia commanded by Colonel James Boyd on this day in 1779 at Kettle Creek, Georgia.
1864: Sherman enters Meridian, Mississippi - Union General William T. Sherman enters Meridian, Mississippi, during a winter campaign that served as a precursor to Sherman's "March to the Sea." This often-overlooked campaign was the first attempt by the Union at total warfare, a strike aimed not just at military objectives but also at the will of the southern people.
Source: http://www.historychannel

1915: First Canadian Division arrives in France from England, and moves into Flanders.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=14

1778 - John Paul Jones in Ranger receives first official salute to U.S. Stars and Strips flag by European country, at Quiberon, France.
1813 - Essex becomes first U.S. warship to round Cape Horn and enter the Pacific Ocean
1814 - USS Constitution captures British Lovely Ann and Pictou
1840 - Officers from USS Vincennes make first landing in Antarctica on floating ice
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm
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February 15

1944: In Italy, bombers of the US 15th Air Force drop thousands of tons of bombs on the monastery located on the top of Monte Cassino. Subsequent attacks by British Commonwealth and Polish forces fail to capture its ruins now occupied and defended by paratroopers (the Green Devils) of 1.Fallschirmjäger-Division (Heidrich).
1945: On the Eastern front, the Red Army captures Sagan in Silesia. Also, Operation Sonnenwende is launched by all three Korps from the 11.SS-Panzer-Armee (XXXIX.Panzer, III.SS-Panzer, and X.SS). They were all to attack on this date but the only divisions ready were the from the III.SS.Panzer-Korps. They began to attack on the 15th with a Kampfgruppe from the 11.SS-PzGr.Div. "Nordland" & 27.SS-Grenadier-Div. "Langemarck", of III.SS.Pz.Korps attacking south towards Arnswalde (about 30-35 kms southeast of Stargard). The KG from the 11.SS followed up the initial penetrations by the infantry of the 27.SS.
Source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 260. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.
1944 - World War II: Assault on Monte Cassino, Italy begins.
1989 - Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops had left Afghanistan.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15

1941: Great Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Romania as it is now clear that the Romanians are firmly allied to the Germans.
1942: Churchill broadcasts to the nation and says the Mediterranean will close to all allied shipping. Singapore surrenders to the Japanese, a decision prompted as much as anything by the plight of the 1,000,000 civilian inhabitants of the island. 9,000 British, Australian and Empire troops are killed and 130,000 captured, many of which will find themselves working as slaves on the notorious Burma-Thai Railway. The Japanese casualties amount to around 9,000 killed or wounded.
1944: The USAAF decimate a Japanese convoy off New Ireland. Hitler permits Field Marshal Models troops to withdraw to Panther Line and also allows the Korsun pocket defenders to break out towards the relieving forces.
1945: Japanese forces are now trapped in the Manila rectangle, which is just 5,000yds by 2,000yds.
Source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/

1915: Mutiny breaks out among Indian soldiers in Singapore, the first large-scale mutiny of World War I. Some 800 soldiers in the Indian army’s 5th Light Infantry Brigade broke out of their barracks on the afternoon of February 15 and killed several British officers before moving on to other areas of the city. By the time the revolt was quashed, several days later, by British, French and Russian troops, the mutineers had killed 39 Europeans—both soldiers and civilians. British soldiers executed 37 of the mutiny’s ringleaders by gunfire.
1966: DeGaulle offers to help end Vietnam War - In response to a letter from Ho Chi Minh asking that French President Charles De Gaulle use his influence to "prevent perfidious new maneuvers" by the United States in Southeast Asia, De Gaulle states that France is willing to do all that it could to end the war. As outlined by De Gaulle, the French believed that the Geneva agreements should be enforced, that Vietnam's independence should be "guaranteed by the nonintervention of any outside powers," and that the Vietnamese government should pursue a "policy of strict neutrality."
Source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1856 - USS Supply, commanded by LT David Dixon Porter, sails from Smyrna, Syria, bound for Indianola, Texas, with a load of 21 camels intended for experimental use in the American desert west of the Rockies.
1898 - U.S. battleship Maine blows up in Havana Harbor.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1942: Fall of Singapore - Over 15,000 Australians taken prisoner by the Japanese on Singapore. For both Britain and Australia this was a terrible military defeat.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

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Ouch with Singapore....

This is how to surrender.

February 16

1940: The British detroyer Cossack, entering neutral Norwegian waters, captures the German freighter Altmark, former supply ship of the Graf Spee, and frees hundreds of British merchant seamen from vessels sunk by the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic.
1942: German U-boats, with their deck guns, bombard oil storage facilities and refineries on the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curacao in the southern Caribbean.
1943: German troops evacuate Charkov.
1944: In Italy, the German counterattack against the US 5th Army's bridgehead at Anzio fails.
1945: On the Eastern front in Pommerania, the remaining units of the 11.SS-Panzer-Armee launch fully into Operation Sonnenwende, which in reality is a severely restricted counter-offensive to relieve the Kuestrin area.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1804 - Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, with volunteers from frigate Constitution and schooner Enterprise, enters Tripoli harbor by night in the ketch Intrepid to burn the captured frigate Philadelphia. Decatur's raid succeeds without American losses. England's Lord Nelson calls this "the most daring act of the age."
1815 - USS Constitution captures British Susannah
1967 - Operation River Raider begins in Mekong Delta
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1940: Halifax Nova Scotia - RCAF's No. 110 Army Cooperation Squadron sails for Britain; first of 48 squadrons to go overseas.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=16

1942: Banka Island massacre - 22 members of the Australian Army Nursing Service and other survivors of the sinking of the SS Vyner Brooke massacred on Banka Island. The only survivor from this party of Australian nurses was Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1862: General Ulysses S. Grant finishes a spectacular campaign by capturing Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. This battle came ten days after Grant's capture of Fort Henry, just ten miles to the west on the Tennessee River, and opened the way for Union occupation of central Tennessee.
1916: After five days of intense fighting, the Russian army defeats the Third Turkish Army to capture Erzerum, a largely Armenian city in the Ottoman province of Anatolia.
1945: The Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines is occupied by American troops, almost three years after the devastating and infamous Bataan Death March.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

February 17

1943: German troops evacuate Demjansk. In Tunisia, the advance by 5.Panzerarmee (von Arnim) beyond Kasserine Pass is suspended.
1944: In the Ukraine, German troops encircled in the Tcherkassy pocket achieve a breakout, but at a heavy cost in men and equipment.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1864 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sinks USS Housatonic
1942 - First Construction Battalion (Seabees) arrive Bora Bora
1944 - Carrier aircraft strike Japanese fleet at Truk, sinking ships and destroying aircraft
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1900: Paardeburg, Orange Free State, South Africa - A major action of the Boer War in which men of the New South Wales Mounted Rifles were involved that resulted in the surrender of 4,000 Boers under General Piet Cronje.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1865: Sherman sacks Columbia, South Carolina The soldiers from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's army ransack Columbia, South Carolina, and leave a charred city in their wake.
1915: Zeppelin L-4 crashes into North Sea After encountering a severe snowstorm on the evening of February 17, 1915, the German zeppelin L-4 crash-lands in the North Sea near the Danish coastal town of Varde.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1944 - World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22. Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_17

1942: German vessel disguised as a British merchantman is reported sunk by a U-boat off Azores.
1943: The Eighth Army occupies Medenine in southern Tunisia. 5th Panzerarmee's advance beyond the Kasserine Pass is temporarily suspended.
1944: The Russians claim the annihilation of the trapped German divisions at Korsun. They also begin to storm Krivoi Rog.
1945: U.S. troops capture the whole of the Bataan Peninsula, which commands Manila Bay in Philippines. The U.S. Third Army launches a new offensive into Germany, having pierced the Siegfried Line on a 11-mile front.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/index.htm

February 18

1943: In the wake of the Stalingrad disaster Dr. Goebbels, speaking before an enthuiastic audience of soldiers and civilians, announces the implementation of "total war" which, for the first time, mandates the employment of German women in the war effort.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Staraja Russa. Heeresgruppe Nord (Schörner) falls back to the line Narva-Pleskau-Oposhka.
1945: In the East, the Red Army encircles Graudenz on the Vistula. German troops of the 11.SS-Panzer-Armee are brought to a stand still against Soviet opposition to Operation Sonnenwende.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1846 - General order on Port and Starboard
1944 - Amphibious Force under RADM Hill lands troops on Engebi Island, Eniwetok
1955 - 1st of 14 detonations, Operation Teapot nuclear test
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1900: Canadian troops play major role in nine-day Battle of Paardeburg; take over 130 casualties.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Feb&day=18

1941: Australian troops arrive in Singapore - Australia recognised that Singapore was vital to its own defence, without the island the British fleet had no suitable base for operations in the South East Asia. The 8th Division was sent to bolster the island's defence in the event of Japan's entering the war.
1943: 9th Division arrives in Fremantle - Having served in North Africa the 9th Division was ordered back to help defend Australia against the Japanese.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1268 - The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor. WOW!, MightyMcBeth will love this!
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_18

February 19

1945: In East Prussia, German forces reestablish communications between Königsberg and the port of Pillau, thus again enabling tens of thousands of German refugees to be evacuated to the West by ships of the Kriegsmarine. Operation Sonnenwende is stopped in the face of fierce Soviet resistance. The operation was a complete military failure, but did achieve the political goal of delaying Soviet operations to take Berlin by several months.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1915: Allied warships shell Dardanelles - This was the first allied attempt to force a passage through the Dardanelles and attack the heart of the Ottoman Empire. Its failure ultimately led to the ill-fated Gallipolli campaign.
1942: First Japanese air raid on Darwin - The city was bombed 64 times between February 1942 and November 1943.
1943 Defence Bill approved - Parliament approves Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Bill introducing conscription for service in the south west Pacific war zone.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1941: The Afrika Korps, the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzerdivisions in North Africa, was formed.
1942: PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.
1943: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
1945: Battle of Iwo Jima - about 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima. (Edit. for more on Iwo Jima go here: : http://www.infoplease.com/spot/iwojima1.html )
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_February

1940: Destroyer HMS Daring torpedoed, 157 are killed. Finnish forces defeat and disperse the Soviet 18th Division northeast of Lake Ladoga.
1942: The battle of Lumbok Strait results in a Japanese victory, as an Allied naval squadron attempts to prevent the Japanese landing on Bali. The Allies lose 1 Dutch destroyer sunk and 2 Dutch cruisers and a US destroyer damaged. Under increasing threat of being outflanked by the advancing Japanese, the 17th Indian Division is finally given permission to withdraw across the river Sittang.
1944: The RAF saturates Leipzig, dropping 2,300 tons of bombs, but lose 78 of 823 bombers. Danish saboteurs attack the rail lines round Aarhus.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1814 - USS Constitution captures British brig Catherine
1945 - Marines with naval gunfire support land on Iwo Jima; island secured 16 March.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm