February

Date	Year	Title	Event
1 February	1943	Last Australian forces sail for home from the Middle East	Japan's entry into the war forced the Australian Government to decline British requests to concentrate on the war in North Africa and Europe. Australia began to 'look to America' for support and concentrated the bulk of her forces against the Japanese.
2 February	1942	First Japanese air attack on Port Moresby	The Japanese had hoped to occupy Port Moresby as a base from which to cut off shipping to Eastern Australia. Their defeat in the Battle of the Coral Sea thwarted the planned naval attack and invasion against Port Moresby.
2 February	1968	Baria recaptured.	The 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, recaptured Baria after the Tet offensive. The effects of the Tet Offensive were felt most acutely by the Australians when the Viet Cong attacked targets around Phuoc Tuy's provincial capital, Baria. The attacks were repulsed with few Australian casualties, though the Communists suffered heavy losses.
3 February	1915	Turkish forces attack the Suez canal	Turkish attempts to capture the Suez canal, vital to Allied shipping, were repulsed largely by Indian troops. Australians of the 7th and 8th Infantry Battalions temporarily garrisoned the trenches after the fight.
3 February	1943	Australians counter-attack at Wau	Having failed to take Wau the Japanese were forced into retreat. At the end of the fighting some 1,200 Japanese had been killed as had some 300 Australians.
4 February	1945	Yalta Conference	Conference between President Roosevelt, Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill to determine the shape of post-war Europe.
5 February	1917	Murray, VC	Captain H.W. Murray, 4th Division, originally from Launceston, Tasmania, wins the Victoria Cross at Stormy Trench north-east of Gueudecourt, France.
6 February	1941	6th Division enter Benghazi, Libya	Benghazi changed hands XXX times as fighting, first against the Italians and later the German Afrika Korps, ebbed and flowed across Libya's Mediterranean coast.
8 February	1942	Japanese invade Singapore	Singapore was believed to be an impregnable fortress but the Japanese advance from the Malayan Peninsula proved the falsity of this belief.
9 February	1943	Japanese defeat on Guadalcanal	After the ill-fated Philippines campaign, Guadalcanal was the first test of land strength between Japan and the United States in the Second World War. Japanese reverses at Guadalcanal contributed to their having to withdraw from the Kokoda trail in 1942 when they were almost within sight of Port Moresby.
10 February	1944	End of Japanese resistance on the Houn Peninsula	Fighting in the Huon Peninsula lasted from August 1943 until mid-February 1944 and involved heavy fighting at such places as Lae, Finschhafen, Sattelberg, Shaggy Ridge and the Ramu Valley.
10 February	1954	Queen Elizabeth at War Memorial	Queen Elizabeth II plants a tree at the Australian War Memorial to mark the beginning of the Remembrance Driveway between Canberra and Sydney
11 February	1951	Chinese offensive, Korea	Chinese launch their fourth phase offensive in Korea
12 February	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 7 Australians and the wounding of 22 others.
12 February	1940	First convoy of 2nd AIF reaches the Middle East	Australia's first land campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa against the Italians.
13 February	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.
13 February	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.
14 February	1900	Relief of Kimberley.	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.
14 February	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.
15 February	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.
16 February	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.
17 February	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.
18 February	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.
18 February	1943	9th Division arrives in Fremantle	Having served in North Africa the 9th Division was ordered back to help defend Australia against the Japanese.
19 February	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.
19 February	1942	1st Japanese air raid on Darwin.	The city was bombed 64 times between February 1942 and November 1943.
19 February	1943	Defence Bill approved	Parliament approves Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Bill introducing conscription for service in the south west Pacific war zone.
20 February	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.
21 February	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.
21 February	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 Canberra 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.
22 February	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.
23 February	1942	Main Australian force on Timor surrenders to the Japanese	Those Australians who remained waged a guerilla war against the Japanese on the island.
23 February	1956	1 Squadron RAAF bomb Communist camps near Kuala Lumpur during the Malayan Emergency	1 Squadron flew Canberra bombers during the Malayan Emergency.
23 February	1967	Badcoe, VC	Major Badcoe, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, originally of Adelaide, South Australia, leads an attack against Viet Cong troops - it was the first of 3 acts of bravery between February and April 1967 for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
24 February	1971	Smith, MM & Bar	Captain J.J. Smith, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, wins a Bar to his Military Cross
25 February	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.
26 February	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
27 February	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.
28 February	1942	Japanese invade Java	The Japanese invasion of Java signalled the defeat of the Netherlands East Indies and was another in the series of victories won by the Japanese in the opening six months of the Pacific war.
28 February	1991	Gulf War ends	With Iraqi forces having been driven from Kuwait and defeated in the field the coalition forces called a halt to the fighting.
29 February	1972	HMAS Sydney arrives at Vung Tau	On this voyage Sydney embarked 457 soldiers. HMAS Sydney made 21 voyages to Vietnam during the war.