February 20

1943: The Afrikakorps halts further offensive operations in Tunisia and withdraws to the Mareth line.
1944: 970 bombers of the US 8th Air Force carry out attacks against Hamburg, Leipzig and Braunschweig.
1945: In the East, Soviet attacks against the lines of Heeresgruppe Kurland cut off for months from the rest of the Eastern front fail in the face of stubborn German resistance.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1864: Battle of Olustee In the largest battle fought in Florida during the Civil War, a Confederate force under General Joseph Finegan decisively defeats an army commanded by General Truman Seymour. The victory kept the Confederates in control of Florida's interior for the rest of the war.
1942: Pilot O'Hare becomes first American WWII flying ace - Lt. Edward O'Hare takes off from the aircraft carrier Lexington in a raid against the Japanese position at Rabaul-and minutes later becomes America's first flying ace.
source: : http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

1942: Japanese land in Portuguese Timor - The Japanese landing in Portuguese Timor heralded the beginning of a long and gruelling guerilla campaign waged by elements of the Australian 2/2nd Independent Company with the support of friendly Timorese.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1815 - USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart, captures HMS Cyane and sloop-of-war Levant
1962 - LCOL John Glenn,USMC becomes first American to orbit Earth. His flight in Friendship 7 (Mercury 6) consisted of 3 orbits in 88 minutes at a velocity of 17,544 mph with the highest altitude of 162.2 statute miles. Recovery was by USS Noa (DD-841).
1962 - USS Dixie (AD-14) rescues lone crewman aboard a sailing yawl adrift for four days.
1974 - S-3A Viking ASW aircraft (carrier jet) introduced officially, given to VS-41.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1940: General von Falkenhorst is appointed to command the German invasion of Norway.
1942: Japanese forces land on the Portuguese Island of Timor. Japanese troops having suffered heavy casualties over the past few weeks from battle and disease, begin to slacken their pressure in Bataan. President Quezon of the Philippines leaves for Australia in a US submarine.
1943: Fierce fighting in continues in central Tunisia after the German breakout through the Kasserine Pass, but further offensive operations by the Afrikakorps are halted in order for them to withdraw to the Mareth line.
1944: The Admiralty announces an 11-day battle with U-boats in Straits of Gibraltar, during which three ships are sunk and several damaged. ‘Big Week’ starts with the largest ever daylight raid of war by the USAAF on Germany as 970 bombers carry out attacks against Hamburg, Leipzig and Braunschweig. The RAF pound Stuttgart with 2,000-tons of bombs.
1945: The RAF launch the first of 36 consecutive night raids on Berlin. Red Army attacks against the lines of Army Group Courland fail in the face of stubborn German resistance.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

February 21

1945: On the Oder front, the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front (Konev) captures Guben. The US 8th Air Force launches another heavy attack (over 1,000 bombers) against Nürnberg.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1916: Verdun, Western Front - A bitter battle between the French and the Germans lasting nine months and costing over a million men killed and wounded. French losses at Verdun meant that for the remainder of the war British forces had to bear much of the burden of the fighting on the Western Front.
1956: Australian and British aircraft bomb Kluang, Malaya - The raid was staged against the jungle base of the 7th Independent Platoon, Malayan Races Liberation Army in Central Johore and was carried out by Lincolns of No. 1 Squadron RAAF and Canberras of No. 12 Squadron RAF. It wiped out the camp and was regarded as the most successful of the 4,000 sorties flown by the Australians in Malaya.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1945 - USS Bismark Sea (CVE-95) struck by a kamikaze off Iwo Jima and sunk in 90 minutes with loss of 318 men. USS Saratoga (CV-3) struck by 5 kamikazes but survived with loss of 123. Bismark Sea was last carrier lost in combat during World War II.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_21

1862: Battle of Val Verde - Confederate troops under General Henry Hopkins Sibley attack Union troops commanded by Colonel Edward R. S. Canby near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory. The first major engagement of the war in the far West, the battle produces heavy casualties but no decisive result.
1918: Combined Allied forces of British troops and the Australian mounted cavalry capture the city of Jericho in Palestine after a three-day battle with Turkish troops.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1945: ermany - Canadian Army breaks through the Seigfried Line, reaches Goch.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=21

1943: Convoy ON-166 (60 ships) sailing from Britain to North America, is attacked in the North Atlantic by 19 U-boats from wolfpacks Ritter and Knappen between the 21st and 26th February. 14 allied ships are lost for 87,901 tons. 4 U-boats U-225, U-606, U-529, U623 were sunk during the battle.
1944: U.S. Marines complete the capture of Eniwetok Atoll, suffering 339 dead.
1945: The British 2nd Division establishes another Irrawaddy bridgehead, while the British 36th Division breaks through at Myitson, in northern Burma. Meanwhile further British forces cross the Irrawaddy in central Burma.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

February 22

1941: The Afrikakorps, newly arrived in Libya, launches its first probing attacks against the unpleasantly surprised British 8th Army (Wavell).
1943: Beginning of of a counterattack by forces of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Kluge) in the area between the Dnepr and Donets.
1944: German troops evacuate Krivoi Rog in the Ukraine.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1813: Ogdensburg New York - Lt. Col. 'Red George' Macdonnell leads 400 Prescott regular militia and Glengarry Light Infantry in a pre-dawn raid on US Fort Ogdensburg across the frozen St. Lawrence; to retaliate for Feb. 6 attack on Brockville; War of 1812.
1943: Gibraltar Mediterranean - Royal Canadian Navy corvette HMCS Weyburn strikes mine and sinks near Gibraltar.
1945: Atlantic - German U-Boat torpedoes Royal Canadian Navy corvette Trentonian.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=22

1942: General Douglas MacArthur ordered to leave the Philippines - MacArthur made his way to Australia from where he directed much of the war against Japan. His famous promise that 'I shall return' was kept when United States forces returned to the Philippines in 1944.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1865 - RADM Porter's gunboats' bombardment cause surrender of Wilmington, NC .
1870 - After arriving on USS Nipsic, and supported by USS Guard and USS Nyack, the Darien Expedition, commanded by CDR Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., begins active operations ashore at Caldonia Bay to survery the Isthmus of Darien, Panama, for an interoceanic ship canal.
1909 - Great White Fleet returns from round the world cruise to Hampton Roads, VA
1943 - USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of the last class of American fast battleships, is commissioned.
1974 - LTJG Barbara Ann Allen becomes first Navy designated female aviator
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1847 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista - 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexicans.
1915 - World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
1944 - American aircraft bombard the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer by mistake, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_22

1864: Battle of West Point, Mississippi Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest routs a Union force three times the size of his army in a battle that helped end Union General William T. Sherman's expedition into Alabama.
1965: Westmoreland asks for Marines General William Westmoreland, commander of Military Assistance Command Vietnam, cables Washington, D.C., to request that two battalions of U.S. Marines be sent to protect the U.S. airbase at Da Nang.
1967: Operation Junction City begins Operation Junction City is launched to ease pressure on Saigon. It was an effort to smash the Viet Cong's stronghold in Tay Ninh Province and surrounding areas along the Cambodian border northwest of Saigon.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1943: Allied commando raid on Myebon, South of Akyab in the Arakan, western Burma. Army Group Centre begins a counterattack in the area between the Dnieper and Donets.
1944: Heavy Japanese losses as the U.S. Navy bombards the Marianas in the Pacific. Malinovsky completes the capture of the mining area around Krivoi Rog.
1945: After a heavy four-day battle, the U.S Fifth Army takes the Upper Reno Valley in northern Italy between Bologna and Florence. The allies launch Operation 'Clarion', which consisted of 10,000 air attacks on communications in central Germany.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/

February 23
1945: In the West, the US Ninth Army (Simpson) begins an offensive from its bridgeheads on the Roer river leading to the bloody battle of the Hürtgen Forest. In the East, the Red Army captures the isolated fortress city of Posen.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1951: Korea - Canadian troops with 27th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade make first contact with enemy.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=23

1942: Main Australian force on Timor surrenders to the Japanese - Those Australians who remained waged a guerilla war against the Japanese on the island.
1956: 1 Squadron RAAF bomb Communist camps near Kuala Lumpur during the Malayan Emergency - 1 Squadron flew Canberra bombers during the Malayan Emergency.
1967: Major P.J. Badcoe, VC - Major P.J. Badcoe, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, originally of Adelaide, South Australia, leads an attack against Viet Cong troops - it was the first of three acts of bravery between February and April 1967 for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1795 - U.S. Navy Office of Purveyor of Supplies is established. This is the Navy Supply Corps Birthday.
1919 - Launching of Osmond Ingram (DD-255), first Navy ship named for an enlisted man
1944 - Carrier groups under Spruance attack Saipan, Tinian and Rota in the Marianas
1945 - Marines and a Navy corpsman raise flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1836 - The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 - Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista - In Mexico, American troops under GeneralZachary Taylor defeat Mexican GeneralAntonio López de Santa Anna.
1918 - First victory of Red Army over the Kaiser's German troops near Narva and Pskov. Since 1923 this date become the Day of Red Army in honour of this victory.
1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
1945 - World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, the city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
1945 - World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_23

1917: German troops begin a well-planned withdrawal—ordered several weeks previously by Kaiser Wilhelm—to strong positions on the Hindenburg Line, solidifying their defense and digging in for a continued struggle on the Western Front in World War I.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=227

1941: Stukas sink a British Destroyer and the Monitor Terror off the North African coast, near Tobruk.
1942: While the 17th Indian Division is withdrawing across the river Sittang, the Japanese launch an attack to capture the Bridge. Lieutenant General Smyth, orders the bridge to be blown, even though more than half his division has still to cross. The remnants of the 17th Indian Division, withdraw to Pegu, where they are joined by the 7th Armoured Brigade, which had recently arrived from the Middle East. For prematurely blowing up the bridge on the river Sittang, Lieutenant General Smyth is removed from command of the 17th Indian Division by General Wavell. Wavells ABDA HQ leaves Java for Australia, where upon its arrival it is disbanded. Against the wishes of Churchill, the Australian Prime Minister, Curtin orders all Australian Divisions to return home. The British submarine HMS Trident, torpedo's the cruiser Prinz Eugen which is sailing to Norway from Kiel, forcing its return to Germany for substantial repairs.
1944: Merrill’s ‘Marauders’ (US 5307th Composite Unit) begins Stilwell’s Sino-American advance into northern Burma. General Lucas is sacked from the Anzio command and is replaced by Major General Truscott. German counter-attacks drives the Anzio beachhead back further.
1945: US paratroops spring 2,146 detainees from a Japanese camp South of Manila in surprise attack, during which 243 Japanese are killed for loss of just two U.S. killed and two injured. The US Ninth Army begins an offensive from its bridgeheads on the Roer river leading to the bloody battle of the Hürtgen Forest.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

February 24

1945: In the East, the Red Army breaks through the German defenses of the Pommerstellung in Pommerania. Off the northern coast of Norway, German U-boats sink 8 ships and 2 destroyers of a convoy bound for the Soviet port of Murmansk. Egypt declares war on Germany.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1739 - Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
1826 - The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War.
1917 - World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if that country declares war on the United States.
1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_24

1971 -Smith, MM & Bar - Captain J.J. Smith, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, wins a Bar to his Military Cross
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1942: Reconnaissance elements of the German 5th Light Division clash with British forces for the first time in Africa, at Nofilia near El Agheila.
1945: U.S. Marines capture a second airfield on Iwo Jima. German U-boats sink 8 ships and 2 destroyers from a convoy bound for the Russian port of Murmansk.A German counter attack wipes out the Russian Hron bridgehead over the Danube to the northwest of Budapest.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1915: Armentières France - Canadian Corps takes over 6.5 km section of trench line near Armentières.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=24

1864 : Battle of Dalton, Georgia, begins - Union General George Thomas attacks Joseph Johnston's Confederates near Dalton, Georgia, as the Yankees probe Johnston's defenses in search of a weakness. Thomas found the position too strong and he ceased the offensive the next day, but the Yankees learned a lesson they would apply during the Atlanta campaign that summer
1917 : British troops recapture Kut in Mesopotamia - The Allied war against Turkish forces gains momentum (and ground) in Mesopotamia as British and Indian troops move along the Tigris River in early 1917, recapturing the city of Kut-al-Amara and taking 1,730 Turkish prisoners on February 24. Ten months after nearly 12,000 British and Indian troops had been captured there—considered by many the most humiliating surrender in the history of the British army—Kut fell into the hands of a British corps commanded by Sir Frederick Maude. After being appointed commander of the Tigris Corps in Mesopotamia in July 1916 and of the entire Mesopotamian front a month later, Maude had immediately begun to reorganize and re-supply the troops in the region in preparation for a renewed offensive against Kut.
1944: "Merrill's Marauders" hit Burma - Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill's guerrilla force, nicknamed "Merrill's Marauders," begin a campaign in northern Burma. In August 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to create an American ground unit whose sole purpose would be to engage in a "long-range penetration mission" in Japanese-occupied Burma. This mission would consist of cutting Japanese communications and supply lines and otherwise throwing the enemy's positions into chaos. It was hoped that this commando force could thus prepare the way for Gen. Joseph Stillwell's Chinese American Force to reopen the Burma Road, which was closed in April 1942 by the Japanese invaders, and once again allow supplies and war material into China through this route.
1969: After a North Vietnamese mortar shells rocks their Douglas AC-47 gunship, Airman First Class John L. Levitow throws himself on an activated, smoking magnesium flare, drags himself and the flare to the open cargo door, and tosses it out of the aircraft just before it ignites. For saving his fellow crewmembers and the gunship, Airman Levitow was later awarded the Medal of Honor. He was one of only two enlisted airmen to win the Medal of Honor for service in Vietnam and was one of only five enlisted airmen ever to win the medal.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1813 - USS Hornet, Captain James Lawrence, captures HMS Peacock
1968 - Task Force Clearwater established in I Corps
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

February 25

1945: 400 RAF bombers carry out attacks against Dortmund and Rheine. Turkey declares war against Germany.
source:
http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1933 - The USS Ranger is launched, becoming the first custom-built aircraft carrier.
1991 - Gulf War: An Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army Reservists from Pennsylvania.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_25

1951: Hill 614, Korea - 12 Platoon, D Company, 3rd battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, captured this important piece of high ground at the second attempt, enabling the United Nations' forces northward advance to the Albany Line to continue.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1861 - Saratoga, member of U.S. African Squadron, captures slaver sloop Express
1959 - USS Galveston fires first Talos surface-to-air missile
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1779: Fort Sackville is surrendered, marking the beginning of the end of British domination in America’s western frontier. Eighteen days earlier, George Rogers Clark departed Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River with a force of approximately 170 men, including Kentucky militia and French volunteers. The party traveled over 200 miles of land covered by deep and icy flood water until they reached Fort Sackville at Vincennes (Indiana) on February 23, 1779. After brutally killing five captive British-allied Indians within view of the fort, Clark secured the surrender of the British garrison under Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton at 10 a.m. on February 25.
1916: German troops seize Fort Douaumont, the most formidable of the forts guarding the walled city of Verdun, France, four days after launching their initial attack. The Battle of Verdun will become the longest and bloodiest conflict of World War I, lasting 10 months and resulting in over 700,000 total casualties.
1972: U.S. troops clash with North Vietnamese forces in a major battle 42 miles east of Saigon, the biggest single U.S. engagement with an enemy force in nearly a year. The five-hour action around a communist bunker line resulted in four dead and 47 wounded, almost half the U.S. weekly casualties.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1941: British Nigerian troops of the 11th African Division occupy Mogadishu, the capital of Italian Somaliland, having advanced up the coast. Meanwhile the 12th African Division pushes up the river Juba in Italian Somaliland towards the Abyssinian border town of Dolo. The British submarine, HMS Upholder, sinks the Italian Cruiser Armando Diaz to the southwest of Malta. British Commando's land on the Italian held Island of Castelorizzo in the Dodecanese.
1943: The RAF begins a round the clock bombing campaign in Tunisia, with 2,000 raids in the next 48 hours.
1944: Convoy JW-57 (43 ships and 19 escorts) sailing the Loch Ewe to the Kola Peninsula, is attacked on 25 February off Norway. One destroyer, HMS Mahratta, is sunk by U-990 for 1,920 tons.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

February 26

1945: Heeresgruppe Kurland repulses heavy Soviet attacks in the area of Prekuln. In the West, the attacks by the US Ninth Army into the Hürtgen Forest make little progress.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1266 - Battle of Benevento: An army led by Charles, Count of Anjou, defeats a combined German and Sicilian force led by KingManfred of Sicily. Manfred is killed in the battle and Pope Clement IV invests Charles as king of Sicily and Naples.
1984 - US troops withdraw from Beirut. President Ronald Reagan had sent the troops as a peacekeeping force in August 1982.
1991 - Gulf War: On Baghdad Radio Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_26

1943: End of fighting at Wau - The Japanese recognised that Allied possession of Wau posed a significant threat to important Japanese bases at Lae and nearby Salamaua and sought to take the town. They were defeated after weeks of heavy fighting.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1945: Rhine Germany - Canadian Army Sergeant Aubrey Cosens wins VC for bravery in Rhine fighting.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Feb&day=26

1811 - Congress authorizes first naval hospital
1913 - Approval of experimental wind tunnel for Navy
1944 - Sue Sophia Dauser, Superintendent of the Navy's Nurse Corps is first woman in Navy to receive rank of Captain.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1945: An ammunition dump on the Philippine island of Corregidor is blown up by a remnant of the Japanese garrison, causing more American casualties on the eve of U.S. victory there.
1965: The first contingent of South Korean troops arrives in Saigon. Although assigned to non-combat duties, they came under fire on April 3. The South Korean contingent was part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam. By securing support from other nations, Johnson hoped to build an international consensus behind his policies in Vietnam. The effort was also known as the "many flags" program. By the close of 1969, there were over 47,800 Korean soldiers actively involved in combat operations in South Vietnam. Seoul began to withdraw its troops in February 1972.
1968: Mass graves discovered in Hue - Allied troops who had recaptured the imperial capital of Hue from the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive discover the first mass graves in Hue. It was discovered that communist troops who had held the city for 25 days had massacred about 2,800 civilians whom they had identified as sympathizers with the government in Saigon. One authority estimated that communists might have killed as many as 5,700 people in Hue.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1942: Churchill exhorts General Auchinleck to launch an offensive against the German and Italian forces that are gathering in front of the Gazala line. He reminds Auchinleck that the longer he waits, the more time Rommel will have to rebuild his strength. To this General Auchinleck reply's that his intention is to first build up an armoured striking force as quickly as possible and strengthen the defenses of the Gazala line. Only then would he mount a major offensive, which he advised Churchill would be in early June. The RAF launch an attack against the battleship Gneisenau, which is being repaired at Kiel's floating dock. The damage caused is severe and the battleship is never again put to sea under her own power.
1943: Von Arnim launches a five-day counter attack in northern Tunisia, gaining some ground. Montgomery issues the plan Operation 'Pugilist', which is to smash the Mareth defensive Line in southern Tunisia.
1944: Bad weather ends ‘Big Week’, during which 26 German aircraft production related factories are hit putting German monthly production down by 20%.
1945: U.S. Marines land on Verde Island, to the Southeast of Manila. Army Group Courland repulses heavy Red Army attacks in the area of Prekuln.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

February 27

1945: Under Soviet pressure, Rumanian King Michael I is forced to appoint a Communist government. The US 8th Air Force launches another heavy attack against Berlin which devastates the center of the city.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.
1617 - Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from BoerGeneralPiet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg.
1991 - Gulf War: U.S.PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated."
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_267

1991: Coalition under US General Norman Schwarzkopf proclaims victory over Iraq in the six-week Gulf War; Canadian troops start to return home after combat operations cease; Canada sent a total of 2,400 troops, 26 fighter planes, 3 warships and a field hospital.
Source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Feb&day=27

1942: Battle of Java Sea - In two separate actions off the coast of Surabaya involving heavy losses in Allied shipping. HMAS Perth was involved in the battle and was one of the few allied ships to survive. The action delayed Japanese landings in Java by only one day.
Source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1942: The Battle of the Java Sea begins and continues for three days, during which the Allies, under the command of the Dutch Admiral, Karel Doorman lose five cruisers and six destroyers, while the Japanese lose just 4 transports. Japanese troops land at Pemangkat on the west coast of Dutch Borneo.
1944: About 60,000 Japanese are reported to be trapped in New Britain and New Ireland, in the South West Pacific.
1945: SHAEF reports that spectacular gains by the U.S. First and Ninth Armies on the Cologne Plain have been made.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/

1776: Patriots score early victory at Moores Creek, North Carolina - In the early-morning hours, Commander Richard Caswell leads 1,000 Patriot troops in the successful Battle of Moores Creek over 1,600 British Loyalists. It would go down in history as the first American victory in the first organized campaign of the Revolutionary War.
1916: Austrians occupy Durazzo in Albania - After completing their conquest of Serbia and Montenegro, the Austro-Hungarian army turns its attentions toward Albania, occupying the coastal city of Durazzo on the Adriatic Sea.
1942: U.S. aircraft carrier Langley is sunk - The U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier, the Langley, is sunk by Japanese warplanes (with a little help from U.S. destroyers), and all of its 32 aircraft are lost.
1962: South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem survives another coup attempt when Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots Lieutenants Pham Phu Quoc and Nguyen Van Cu try to kill him and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu by bombing and strafing the presidential palace.
1965 United States assails North Vietnamese "aggression" - The U.S. State Department releases a 14,000-word report entitled "Aggression from the North--The Record of North Vietnam's Campaign to Conquer South Vietnam." Citing "massive evidence," including testimony of North Vietnamese soldiers who had defected or been captured in South Vietnam, the document claimed that nearly 20,000 Viet Cong military and technical personnel had entered South Vietnam through the "infiltration pipeline" from the North.
1969: Communist offensive continues - Communist forces shell 30 military installations and nine towns in South Vietnam, in what becomes known as the "Post-Tet Offensive." U.S. sources in Saigon put American losses in this latest offensive at between 250 and 300, compared with enemy casualties totaling 5,300. South Vietnamese officials report 200 civilians killed and 12,700 made homeless.
Source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1973 - First airborne mine sweep in a live minefield took place in the Haiphong, Vietnam ship channel by helicopters from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Twelve on board USS New Orleans.
Source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

February 28

1945: In the East, the Red Army suspends all offensive operations against the lines of Heeresgruppe Kurland. In the West, the US Ninth Army achieves a breakthrough near Erkelenz 30 miles W of Cologne, but losing 100 tanks in the process.
source: : http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1900 - The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.
1998 - Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive againt the KLA in Kosovo.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_28

1942: Java Indonesia - Japanese Navy sinks two more Allied ships on the second day of the Battle of Java Sea; Japanese land on the island of Java, the last Allied bastion in the Dutch East Indies.
1994: Bosnia - NATO jets shot down four Serbian warplanes violating Bosnia's no-fly zone.
Source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Feb&day=28

1864: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid begins - A major Union cavalry raid begins when General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick leads 3,500 troopers south from Stevensburg, Virginia. Aimed at Richmond, the raid sought to free Federal prisoners and spread word of President Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in hopes of convincing Confederates to lay down their arms.
1916: German Cameroons surrenders to Allied forces - Allied forces complete their conquest of the Cameroons, a German protectorate on the coast of western Africa.
1968: Wheeler says Westmoreland will need more troops - Gen. Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, returns from his recent round of talks with Gen. William Westmoreland in Saigon and immediately delivers a written report to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1941: British Commando's, having been left to hold Castelorizzo without out Naval support or reinforcement, are forced to evacuate when the Italians land troops on the Island. Vichy France reduces bread ration from 350g to 280g.
1942: Japanese land on Java. Japanese are only 50 miles north of Rangoon. A combined services parachute operation to destroy the radar station at Bruneval in North France succeeds.
1943: Nine Norwegian commandos successfully climb down the steep gorge on one side of the German ‘heavy water’ plant at Telemark and work their way up a 500 foot, almost sheer rock face to reach the plant on the other side of the gorge. Undetected, they gain entrance and successfully set and detonate their explosives, ruining the plant. All the commandos escaped safely, without taking or inflicting any casualties.
1945: U.S. Marines take Motoyama on Iwo Jima after a bloody battle. Corregidor is reported as clear of Japanese troops. The British Indian 4th Corps take Meiktila airfield in central Burma after an eight-day push from the Irrawaddy. The 2nd Belorussian Front captures Neustettin. The Red Army suspends all further offensive operations against the lines of Army Group Courland.
Source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/

1844 - Explosion of Peacemaker, experimental 14 inch gun, on board USS Princeton.
1893 - Launching of USS Indiana (BB-1), first true battleship in U.S. Navy.
1959 - USS Strong rescues 13 Arab fishermen from Bahrain when their fishing boats floundered in a storm.
1980 - Blue crew of USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657) launches 4 Trident I (C-4) missiles in first C-4 Operational Test.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

February 29

1944: In Italy, another German counterattack against the US Fifth Army's bridgehead at Anzio is repulsed.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/february.html

1944 - PB4Y-1s from squadrons VB-108, VB-109, and VD-3, conduct a low-level bombing raid on Japanese positions on Wake Island.
1968 - Four North Vietnamese trawlers attempting to simultaneously infiltrate supplies into South Vietnam were detected. Three of the trawlers were sunk in battle on the following day and one survived by turning back.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesfeb.htm

1944: Myanmar - British and Indian troops, with some Canadians, finally drive the Japanese invaders from Burma.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Feb&day=29

1916: Both the British armed merchant ship Alcantara and the German raider Grief sink after engaging each other in a close-range battle on the North Sea. The German raider Grief was in disguise, flying under the Norwegian flag and with Norwegian colors displayed on its sides, when it attempted to run a British blockade. The Alcantara, still under the impression that the Grief was a Norwegian shipping vessel, was sent to investigate. The Grief did not respond to repeated attempts at communication from Captain Thomas E. Wardle of the Alcantara and continued heading northeast. When Captain Wardle ordered the ship to stop in order to be inspected, the crew of the Grief quickly lowered the Norwegian colors and raised the German flag before it opened fire on the surprised crew of the Alcantara, who quickly returned fire. The battle raged for 12 agonizing minutes at close range. The Alcantara lost 74 men in the battle; the Grief lost nearly 200. By the time a second British armed merchant ship, the Andes, arrived on the scene, both ships had been badly damaged. On fire and sinking quickly, the desperate Grief fired one final torpedo, striking the Alcantara. Both ships eventually sank. The crew of the Andes picked up the survivors of both ships, taking more than 120 German prisoners.
1972:South Korea pulls 11,000 troops out of Vietnam as part of its program to withdraw all of its 48,000 troops from the country. The South Korean contingent had begun arriving in country on February 26, 1965, as part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam. By securing support from other nations, Johnson hoped to build an international consensus behind his policies in Vietnam. The effort was also known as the "many flags" program. At the height of the Korean commitment in 1969, there were over 47,800 Korean soldiers actively involved in combat operations in South Vietnam. The South Korean troop withdrawal reflected the trend among other Free World Military Force participants, who had already withdrawn or were beginning to withdraw their troops, following the lead of the United States as it drastically reduced its troops commitment in South Vietnam.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1944 - World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_29

1972: HMAS Sydney arrives at Vung Tau - On this voyage Sydney embarked 457 soldiers. HMAS Sydney made 21 voyages to Vietnam during the war.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/feb.htm

1944: The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division lands at Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands, capturing an airfield. MacArthur pays a visit.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm