Major Tommy Turtle
‘Tough as teak’ SAS soldier who took part in several daring operations during the Falklands War
MAJOR TOMMY TURTLE, who has died of cancer aged 70, was an SAS soldier who was involved in a number of special forces campaigns over 39 years of service and saw much action during the Falklands War.
Shortly after midnight on May 12 1982 eight members of 17 (Boat) Troop, D Squadron, 22 Special Air Service Regiment, were covertly inserted into West Falkland to reconnoitre an Argentine airfield on Pebble Island, a small island just to the north, as a prelude to bringing in the remainder of the squadron to destroy any enemy aircraft or radar it might contain.
One of these men was Corporal Tommy “Touché” Turtle, a tall, strongly built Irishman possessed of good looks, charm, a gentle brogue and a genial but resolute disposition. Equipped with two-man collapsible canvas canoes, they paddled and advanced by foot to observe and report.
As a result, in the early hours of May 15, the remainder of the squadron, inserted by Sea King helicopters flying from Hermes, attacked the airfield in an operation reminiscent of the first SAS actions in North Africa during the Second World War.
Eleven enemy aircraft (including a Skyvan built in Belfast) and an ammunition dump were destroyed. Glamorgan provided gunfire support, and a potential threat to the imminent task force landings at San Carlos Water, East Falkland, was eliminated. All SAS men were successfully extracted with only two minor casualties.
Several weeks earlier, during the operation to recover South Georgia, Turtle and his Boat Troop companions had experienced narrow escapes shortly after casting off in five inflatable boats from Antrim.
It soon became obvious that three of the boats’ engines had malfunctioned, but the men were confident they could tow and paddle ashore in the relatively benign conditions. But almost immediately after Antrim had departed, they were hit by a fierce wind which rose to Gale Force 9 in an instant. The men clung on to avoid being swept away to certain death.
Turtle’s engine did start, and he took one boat in tow to the safety of the small island which was their destination; then he returned in a vain search for the other three boats.
After an hour his boat was swamped by a wave and the engine cut out, but they made it to South Georgia, where they spent a day in cover repairing their engine. After dark they set out again, only for the engine to fail once more.
They returned to shore and scaled a cliff in freezing conditions; the following day they sighted Endurance entering Stromness Bay and flashed “SOS SAS” on a torch. They were airlifted the following day, at the second attempt, by Endurance’s Wasp helicopter. Thereafter the members of 17 Troop christened themselves “The South Georgia Boating Club”.
After Pebble Island, Turtle took part in a number of actions, including the diversionary raid on Goose Green on the night of the landings, the action on Bluff Cove Peak against Argentine Special Forces, whom they put to flight, and the boat raid on Cortley Ridge on the night before the Argentine surrender.
In this daring operation a number of SAS men were driven on to the enemy-held shore in Rigid Raider assault craft. Quickly realising that they were in a minefield, they pressed on, only to come under fire.
As they withdrew in the Rigid Raiders, an Argentine hospital ship, in contravention of the Geneva Conventions, illuminated them with searchlights, enabling onshore enemy guns to put them under intense fire. Turtle’s badly damaged craft sank just as they made the far shore, only for them to come under fire again, this time from mortars, as they withdrew on foot. One of his crew commented: “Throughout it all Tommy was totally calm and composed. You would have thought he was on an exercise.”
Thomas Turtle was born on December 24 1950, the eldest of four sons and a daughter born to James and Mary Turtle; his father was an Ulster Protestant, his mother a Catholic from the Republic, where Tommy was mostly brought up.
Though the family was not well off, they formed a strong unit, and he acquired an aptitude for hard work Leaving school at 14, he had a number of jobs, including working in a woollen mill, then joined the Irish Army reserves at 16. When a friend decided to join the British Army, Turtle followed.
He enlisted in the Royal Irish Rangers in Ballymena and served in Gibraltar, West Germany and the Middle East. Although a big man, he was an accomplished runner, representing his battalion in the Army Cross Country Championships. He was one of the first non-paras to graduate from the Parachute Regiment Battle School in Brecon, and in 1977 he passed selection for the SAS.
After the Falklands he was posted as an instructor to 21 SAS (Volunteers) in London and then served in Northern Ireland, where his competence and personality impressed his opposite numbers in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. An RUC officer described Turtle’s “gentle nature, modesty, total integrity” and “love of good company, a Guinness or two and the craic”; he was also “as tough as teak.” Turtle received a Mention in Despatches and in 1988 the British Empire Medal.
A capable organiser, in 1990 he was promoted to warrant officer and posted to the International Long-range Reconnaissance Patrol School in Germany, then two years later was commissioned into the Royal Irish Regiment. He remained there until 1995, when the SAS recalled him for an advisory role in Bosnia.
Turtle’s final years in the SAS included appointments in the Directorate of Special Forces and in the Middle East. He retired in 2005.
He is survived by his wife Sue and their two sons.