This day in military history..

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?

:9mm:
 
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?

:rambo:
 
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: [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_8"][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_10"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_13[/URL][/URL]

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....
1116442977.jpg

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

:sniper:
 
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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

:rock:
 
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_this_day?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

:m16:
 
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Battle for Iwo Jima begins

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

:rock:
 
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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

:sniper:
 
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

:rambo:
 
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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/

:rock:
 
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


:salute2:
 
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

:2guns:
 
Last edited:
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


:rambo:
 
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


:tank:
 
Last edited:
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

:m16:
 
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

:salute2:

 
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_this_day?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
 
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