Armed Forces of the English-speaking Caribbean: The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago

The Armed Forces of the English-speaking Caribbean have a rich, albeit brief history. This book covers their story from the post-Second World War West India Regiment to the independence of the former British Colonies in the 1960s and 1970s. The failed West India Federation led directly to the formation of the national armed forces of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados while Guyana’s forces had their roots in Police Special Services Units and a Volunteer Force. Shortly after Independence, Guyana’s armed forces found themselves in a border conflict with Suriname as well as a far less salubrious operation to support a corrupt and racist government through rigged elections. Trinidad found itself facing a mutiny in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, redemption only coming for the force in 1990 when it played a stellar role in quelling an Islamist insurrection. Barbados and Jamaica’s armed forces had a more subdued history, supporting police forces but playing an important role in the intervention in Grenada in 1983. The Bahamas, unique in having a naval force as its primary military unit, had the dubious distinction of having one of its patrol boats sunk by Cuban MiG-21s in 1980.