This Day in Military History

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5 February 1831

Jan Carolus Josephus van Speijk blows up his own gunboat near Antwerp rather than lower the Dutch flag and surrender to the Belgian independence movement.

The Royal Netherlands Navy goes on to name seven different warships for the Dutch naval hero, the newest of which is the Karel Doorman class frigate HNLMS Van Speijk (F828).

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6 February 1965

 

Lead ship of her class, the amphibious transport dock USS Austin (LPD-4) is commissioned into US Navy service.

 

She continued to serve through September 2006.

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7 February 1944

 

The first operational U-boats to be fitted with 'Schnorchel underwater breathing apparatus' go to sea on operational patrols.

 

(Other boats had been fitted since Summer 1943 but had not used the device on operations).

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10 February 1906

Marking a revolution in naval power, HMS Dreadnought is commissioned into the Royal Navy.

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11 February 1971

 

The Seabed Arms Control Treaty is signed by the USA, UK and Soviet Union. Other countries follow suit.

 

The treaty bans the emplacement of weapons of mass destruction on the ocean floor beyond the 12 mile coastal zone.

 

It enters into force on 18 May 1972.

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12 February 1946

 

At 1004 hrs, the Type XXI U-boat U-3514 becomes the final U-boat among 116 sunk during the course of Operation Deadlight.

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13 February 1991

 

At 4:30 a.m., a pair of F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters drop two 2,000 lb GBU-27 laser guided bombs on a target they believe to be the Al Firdos command & control bunker in the Amiriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq.

 

Both bombs penetrate the reinforced concrete structure and explode inside, as designed.

 

It is soon apparent, however, that the building was being used as a civilian air raid shelter.

 

More than 400 civilians are killed, including many women and children.

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14 February 1950

 

Stalin and Mao sign the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance.

 

By the late 1950s, that "loving feeling" had been lost, and political and ideological relations had deteriorated, marking the start of the Sino-Soviet Split, but the treaty remained in force until 1979.

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17 February 1864

 

Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley infiltrates the outer harbour at Charleston and proceeds to attack and sink the Union sloop USS Housatonic with a barbed spar torpedo, becoming the first combat submarine to sink a warship.

 

Soon afterward, and before being able to return safely home, the Hunley sinks with the loss of all eight crewmen.

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18 February 1900

 

During the Second Boer War, on the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg, a combined British-Canadian force of 6,000 troops cornered a group of approximately 5,000 Boer soldiers and some civilians in a bend of the Modder River, near Kimberley.

 

The land sloped down to the Boer trench positions and lacked any cover for 800 meters or more.

 

The attack resulted in a total 1,100 British and Canadian casualties, with 280 killed - the worst single day loss for the Imperial forces, earning the battle the name 'Bloody Sunday'.

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19 February 1942

 

In the first and largest single attack mounted by a foreign power against Australia, and often referred to as that country's own version of "Pearl Harbor", 242 Japanese aircraft attack ships in the harbour at Darwin and two nearby airfields.

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20 February 1959

 

On a day that has since become known as 'Black Friday' in Canadian aviation history, the Diefenbaker government cancels the Avro CF-105 Arrow interceptor.

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21 February 1916

 

The Battle of Verdun begins on the Western Front between the German and French armies, on the hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeastern France. It continues through 18 December, at a cost of about 300,000 lives.

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24 February 1813

 

During the War of 1812, the American sloop of war USS Hornet sinks the British sloop HMS Peacock off the northern coast of South America.

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25 February 1991

 

The Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense treaty made in May 1955 between the communist states of eastern and central Europe, is disbanded at a meeting of Pact officials in Hungary.