United States invasion of Grenada 1983 - Operation Urgent Fury in realtime

I know for one the Soviets were not willing to go to war over Grenada. What was closer was in Lebanon which the U.S. Marine barracks was bombed and the Iowa-class battleships saw action again.

DAY 1 of Operation Urgent Fury, Tuesday, October 25th 1983

YouTube (U.S. Invades Grenada, October 25th 1983)



Combat operations (Air, Land and Sea)

United States Army Rangers and other special operations forces of the Joint Special Operations Command, including the helicopters of the 160th Aviation Battalion—designated Task Force 160 and commanded by Lt. Col. Terence M. Henry—were the spearhead force for the operation. The Rangers of the 1st Battalion, 75th Infantry, had departed Hunter Army Airfield at 2230 the night before in C–130s. The uncertainty of the situation on Grenada, like the confusion of the 82d Airborne Division, led the Rangers, except for the lead assault company, to rig for airlanding, not for airdrop. During the flight, however, Colonel Taylor received additional intelligence that the Cubans had placed obstacles on the runway, making airlanding unlikely. He believed that if he parachuted only one company down to clear the obstacles they would be dangerously exposed, with no chance of reinforcement. He therefore decided, just in case, to rig the entire battalion for airdrop and gave the order during the flight. It was well he did. The first two planes with the lead assault company had to abort their drops because of failures in their inertial navigation system and radar. Not originally scheduled as the lead assault element, the Rangers were then air-dropped from the third plane. They jumped in the face of moderate antiaircraft fire beginning at 0530. Assisted by circling Air Force AC–130 Spectre gunships, the Rangers hit the ground, returned fire, and set up their command post.

Photo: Rangers parachute onto Point Salines early in the morning of October 25th 1983



Almost simultaneously with the Ranger attack, a company of the 2d Battalion, 8th Marines, landed by helicopter south of Pearls Airport on the east coast of Grenada. A Grenadian attempt to engage the helicopters with antiaircraft fire ended when Marine AH–1 Cobra gunships silenced the threat. The marines moved out to the north to secure the airfield, encountering only light resistance.

Map: Initial troop invasion areas



The special operations forces’ effort to rescue Governor General Sir Paul Scoon in St. George’s did not go as smoothly. The helicopters of the supporting Task Force 160 had arrived late at the intermediate staging base in Barbados and did not depart until 0530, well after dawn and a half hour after the planned attack time. As a result, the assault force, consisting of lightly armed Navy SEALs (sea-air-land commandos) and their Army special operations counterparts, was fully exposed to enemy fire. After rappelling from their helicopters to the ground near the governor general’s residence and securing Sir Paul, the special operators found themselves under attack by Grenadian forces including armored cars. Lacking antitank weapons, they called in air strikes from circling AC–130s, Marine helicopters, and Navy A–7 Corsair fighter-bombers, battling the enemy all day and into the night.

Photo: A U.S. Army AH-1S Cobra attack helicopter opens fire on an enemy position



Other special operations attacks that day were even less successful. Attempts to silence Radio Free Grenada by capturing the main radio transmitter were unsuccessful. It was later discovered that the Grenadians had alternate transmitters for the station. Counterattacks drove the Americans into the jungle in a hasty retreat. Daylight attacks against objectives at the Richmond Hill prison and Fort Rupert also failed after withering antiaircraft fire severely damaged the helicopters involved in the assault. Two of the helicopters crashed, killing one of the pilots, Capt. Keith J. Lucas. Two Marine AH–1 Cobra gunships were also shot down by antiaircraft fire from nearby Fort Frederick. Three of the four crew members were killed.

Meanwhile, the Ranger attack at Point Salines slowly gathered steam. Using two-man teams to clear the vehicles that the Cubans had parked on the runway (in some cases conveniently leaving the keys in the ignition), the Rangers were able to ready the airfield to receive planes. But the Rangers also had to suppress the antiaircraft fire, and they quickly called in AC–130s to finish the job. Small arms fire from the Cubans and Grenadians continued, however, although it affected troops on the ground more than aircraft. Still, with two companies on the ground, the Rangers were able to shift to the high ground to their east and capture about two hundred Cubans. As they continued on toward the Cubans’ construction camp, they took an additional twenty-two prisoners. The airfield was declared secured at 0735. The first C–130 touched down moments later.

Photo: Bombardment of Point Calivigny



Even as the airfield was secured, the Rangers began to push toward nearby high ground to silence enemy snipers. They enlisted airpower and even commandeered a Cuban bulldozer to assist. S. Sgt. Manous F. Boles Jr., a member of the runway-clearing team, put the blade of the bulldozer up for protection against small arms fire and drove it up the hill with a squad following behind to take the heights. Ranger mobility improved when aircraft delivered long-awaited gun jeeps. One jeep immediately loaded up with soldiers and drove off to establish an outpost to protect the nearby True Blue medical school campus. The Rangers, however, lost their way and were ambushed. Four Rangers were killed and one badly wounded.

Photo: U.S. Army soldiers of 1st Platoon A Co. 1st Bn ABN/508th Inf,82d Airborne Division on patrol. Two of the soldiers (facing left foreground) on the road have M47 Dragon antitank weapons.



By midday, all of the close high ground surrounding the airfield was in friendly hands. Using a captured antiaircraft gun on the heights near a Cuban Army compound north of the village of Calliste, the Rangers forced the surrender of one hundred fifty more Cubans. Only eighty Cubans remained unaccounted for, and enemy fire slackened considerably.

Meanwhile, the Rangers set up a detainee collection and interrogation point near the airfield. The Rangers retained custody of the detainees for only a few hours before they turned them over to the lead elements of a 300-man Caribbean Peacekeeping Force arriving in an Air Force C–130. The U.S. military and civilian leadership, recognizing the public relations value of an international armed contingent and its lack of training for combat, had arranged for these troops to assume peacekeeping and detainee control duties.

Photo: Members of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force



Being freed from detainee guard duty and not wishing to commit his reduced force to the second mission, the seizure of Calivigny Barracks, General Sholtes awaited the arrival of the follow-on 82d Airborne Division elements. They began arriving by airplane and not by parachute assault at 1400. With the airfield secure, General Trobaugh had decided that the risks of losing men in the ocean (the paratroopers had not been issued flotation devices) outweighed whatever advantages of mass that might be achieved by a parachute assault. Though the airfield could only handle one plane at a time, the troops would be much less scattered and less likely to suffer the normal accidents and breakages attendant to any parachute drop.

Even as the command group for the 82d Airborne Division gathered on the island, linked up with the Rangers, and began to assess the fluid situation, a larger problem erupted. When the Rangers had moved to rescue the American medical school students at the True Blue campus, they found only about one hundred forty students. The students told the Rangers that there was a larger campus with even more students—around two hundred—at Grand Anse a few miles to the north. This was the first the Americans had heard of this second campus. No plans existed to capture it.

The frail security of the perimeter protecting the airfield was underscored by an incident about 1530. Company A of the 2d Battalion, 325th Infantry, was reinforcing some Ranger positions near the True Blue campus when three BTR60 armored personnel carriers attacked, pushing down the road from the university campus. The soldiers of the Grenadian Army’s Motorized Company drove directly into the Ranger’s positions, firing their machine guns wildly in all directions. In response, the Rangers and the airborne troopers showered the vehicles with light antitank weapon (LAW) fire and 90-mm. recoilless rifle fire, which caused two vehicles to crash and their occupants to flee, leaving two dead behind. The third vehicle was fired on by a circling AC–130 and destroyed.

Photo: A U.S. Navy Ling Temco Vought A-7E-4-CV Corsair II from attack squadron VA-87 Golden Warriors in flight over Port Salines airfield, Grenada. VA-87 was assigned to Carrier Air Wing 6 (CVW-6) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62)



Although this was the last major attack against the perimeter, the assault so surprised General Trobaugh that he requested reinforcements. Calling Fort Bragg on his satellite radio, he told his division rear staff, “Send me battalions until I tell you to stop.” This began the flow of additional infantry but severely disrupted the logistical stream as the combat forces received priority over support troops and supplies. He also asked for, and received, operational control over the Ranger battalions even though the original plan had them departing once the 82d took over the operation.

While action continued around the airfield at Point Salines, air and naval forces raided enemy command posts in the Fort Frederick and Fort Rupert areas and pursued rescue of the cutoff SEALs at the governor general’s residence. A–7 Corsairs from the Independence attacked the two forts, accidentally hitting a hospital close to Fort Frederick and killing eighteen mental patients. They also struck the gun positions placed near the hospital by the Grenadian military. Around 1900, a landing force of about two hundred fifty marines with tanks and amphibious vehicles stormed ashore at Grand Mal Bay north of St. George’s and pushed south and east toward the governor general’s residence. Moving deliberately, the marines finally linked up with the beleaguered SEALs just after sunrise on the twenty-sixth. They flew Sir Paul, his wife, nine civilians, and the SEALs out to the USS Guam by helicopter at 1000. The marines then moved on to Fort Frederick to the east and quickly captured the fort.

Photo: Three U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters prepare to touch down next to the Point Salines airport runway during "Operation Urgent Fury"



The 82d Airborne Division’s buildup of forces on the airfield continued throughout the afternoon and evening of 25–26 October. The last of the 2d Battalion, 325th Infantry, reached the airstrip before dusk, and the follow-on 3d Battalion of the 325th was in place early on the twenty-sixth. Supplies began to flow more easily as the pace of C–130 landings picked up, but quantities of food, water, and ammunition remained limited.

Photo: A U.S. Marine Corps Bell UH-1N Huey helicopter from Marine medium helicopter transport squadron HMM-261 Raging Bulls during "Operation Urgent Fury". The helicopter is equipped with door-mounted M60D machine guns. In the background is a Sikorsky CH-53D Stallion helicopter.

This is dated on October 26th 1983 but i decided not post it in the next update, its a YouTube clip of Cuban Pres Fidel Castro saying he will not send reinforcements to back up the 600 Cubans on Grenada, as the US invasion force on the island is `too strong'. The Cuban commander on Grenada, Col Pedro Tortolo, has orders to receive and listen to a representative of the US.

DAY 2 of Operation Urgent Fury, Wednesday, October 26th 1983

Political events

British PM Thatcher angered over US invasion of Grenada. Pentagon expresses “sense of outrage” about Thatcher’s refusal to participate in invasion after the US’s assistance in the recapturing of the Falklands from the Argentinians the year prior.

Combat operations (Air, Land and Sea)

General Trobaugh’s priority on the morning of the twenty-sixth was to rescue the medical students at the newly “discovered” Grand Anse campus of the St. George’s University School of Medicine. However, the few helicopters available to him from the special operations aviation task force were too badly shot up for use, and his own helicopters had not yet arrived on the island. He decided to use his forces to consolidate his hold on the airfield—still subject to harassing sniper fire—and then move out in strength the next day to find the students.

Photo: A U.S. Army Bell AH-1S Cobra helicopter flies over Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters at Port Salines airfield, Grenada on October 26th 1983.



The 2nd Brigade attack kicked off early on the twenty-sixth only to have a reconnaissance patrol near a hill at Calliste led by Capt. Michael F. Ritz of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 325th Infantry, ambushed by Cubans. Ritz was killed instantly, and his sergeant severely wounded. One of the company’s platoons then moved cautiously up the hill conducting reconnaissance by fire to flush out the Cubans. Locating some Russian hand grenades, the soldiers bombarded the Cuban positions and fire diminished but not before another soldier was killed and five more wounded. The fight had been an intense and costly one, with two American dead and six wounded in the space of a few minutes.

After the firefight near Calliste, the main attack started at 0630. A combination of artillery fire and Navy fighter-bomber sorties against the center of enemy resistance, a Cuban compound, soon silenced the enemy guns and white flags began appearing. Though some of the Cubans escaped into the surrounding jungle, the main body of the Cuban “construction workers” surrendered, and the compound was secure by 0835.

Photo: M102 howitzers of 1st Bn 320th FA, 82D Abn Div firing during battle



The 2nd Brigade continued to move slowly north and east, expanding the perimeter around the airfield with only minor enemy contact. Despite a few heat casualties, the force advanced toward Frequente. Near Frequente, one of the companies, Company C, discovered a series of warehouses surrounded by barbed wire and chain-link fence. Inside the warehouses were enough Soviet- and Cuban-supplied small arms and military equipment to outfit six infantry battalions, far in excess of Grenadian military needs.

While securing the warehouses, men from Company C watched as five gun jeeps of the battalion’s reconnaissance platoon were ambushed by Cubans. The Cubans let the first two jeeps go past and opened fire on the last three. The lead jeeps wheeled back toward the ambush zone with machine guns blazing. Company C opened fire as well and began placing mortar rounds on the Cuban positions. The Cubans broke contact and fled, leaving behind four dead. There were no U.S. casualties. The troops continued the advance east until sunset, when they halted and established a defensive perimeter.

While the paratroopers pushed east and north, General Trobaugh ordered the Rangers of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Infantry, to launch a helicopter assault to rescue the American medical students at Grand Anse. He had wanted to delay the raid until the twenty-seventh, but at 1100 on the twenty-sixth he received a directive from the Joint Chiefs to rescue the students immediately. He assigned the mission to Colonel Hagler’s Rangers and borrowed some Marine helicopters from the Guam to transport them to Grand Anse. Hagler met with Col. James P. Faulkner, commander of the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, to work out the details.

The rescue operation began late in the afternoon. Using Navy and Air Force planes for preparatory fires and fire support, Hagler’s Rangers flew in on six CH–46 Marine Sea Knight helicopters and seized the campus. Two companies secured a perimeter while the other company found the 233 students and led them to the waiting Sea Knights. The Grenadian defenders mounted only a token resistance before fleeing, and one Ranger was lightly wounded. One CH–46 crashed into the nearby surf when its blades hit a palm tree, but the evacuees were loaded onto other helicopters without further incident. With one less helicopter for the evacuation, eleven Rangers were forced to stay behind, but they borrowed a rubber raft from the downed helicopter and after dark paddled out to sea where they were picked up by an American destroyer, the USS Caron. But perhaps the most unsettling occurrence was when intelligence gained from the students indicated that there was yet a third area where large numbers of Americans resided, a peninsula on Prickly Bay (near Lance aux Épines) just east of Point Salines. Once again a lack of intelligence forced planners to readjust and prepare for another rescue mission.

Photo: A Marine Corps Sea Knight helicopter sits on the beach after being disabled during the Grand Anse rescue on October 26th 1983



By the end of the day on the twenty-sixth, most objectives had been accomplished and the 82nd was well established in a perimeter along the Calivigny Peninsula. The plans for the following day included expanding the perimeter toward St. George’s in the north and receiving follow-on forces from the 3rd Brigade and pushing them to clear the southern portion of the island.

There is a scene in the movie called Heartbreak Ridge by Clint Eastwood that duplicates that event, but as i cannot find the scene i will post this instead.