Grenada 1983

Osprey Men at Arms #159

by Lee Russell, M. Albert Mendez, Paul Hannon (Illustrator)

On 21 October 1983, following the death of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, the leaders of the six small nations forming the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States voted to intervene militarily to restore order in Grenada. As none possessed the forces necessary to carry out a successful operation, the United States, fearing for its citizens on the island, and wanting to curb Cuba's growing influence, decided to get involved. This book provides a day-by-day account of the US invasion of Grenada, focusing on the units and forces deployed. Numerous contemporary photographs and colour plates detail the uniforms and equipment of the US, Cuban and Caribbean forces.

Genres: History, Military History, Nonfiction, War

48 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1985

Reviews

[William Razavi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is like reading a press release from the US State Department in 1984. The celebratory last paragraph that compares the triumph of American arms in Grenada with that of the UK in the Falklands stamps a level of full cold war propaganda into this text. As a quick visual reference for the combatant uniforms and equipment (really the original purpose of the Men-at-Arms series) this is as good as might be expected and has the benefit of not being a retrospective. But the historical account is really a press release and that makes even the account of events a little suspect. The lack of any bibliography is the best indicator of there not being any nuance or objectivity in the account. But hey, if you're looking for a very short official account of the US invasion of Grenada in 1983 as a starting point, here you go.

[Gary Allen, PhD · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the US Military operation

[David Cuatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Osprey with a brief but useful overview of this overlooked but important military clash. Lots of pictures. Worth a read.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an Osprey book! And it's about the US invasion of Grenada in 1983! (Not that the title leaves much for interpretation.)

A good little book, about what one might expect from Osprey. It's far too light to serve as a truly dependable historical account of Operation Urgent Fury, and having been published in 1985 (with evidently no revised editions) it offers no real retrospective of the events. It does do well as a "quick reference" in this regard.

But Osprey's books are more about depicting military units, gear, uniforms, weapons, etc., rather than serving as fuller histories, and the book does this well. The plates show the many different field uniforms of the armies involved, especially the mix-matched ones of the US forces (ERDL fatigues AND Kevlar helmets--madness!). As always the illustrations are supplemented with detailed descriptions and with photographs of all this stuff in action.

This book meets the expectations of an Osprey book: no more, no less. If you're a fan it's a good addition to your collection, a great reference if you're into military modelling, mil-sim, or reenacting, and worth checking out if you wanted to know a little more about "that time the US went to Grenada."