A tragic mistake in the early days of the Falklands conflict in 1982 led to a Royal Marine shooting dead an Argentine prisoner of war, according to a board of inquiry report released by the Ministry of Defence yesterday.

Subofficial Primero Felix Artuso was shot five times in the head and chest because the marine guarding him on board a captured Argentine submarine thought that he was about to scuttle the boat.

The marine, who is not identified in the report, had warned Artuso, in sign language, that he must make no attempt to pull the submarine’s main vent levers, which, once opened, would lead to the vessel sinking.

However, according to the board’s findings, an error of judgment had been made by a Royal Navy sonar technician with limited experience of submarines, who had misidentified the key levers. The levers he had said were never to be touched were merely air controllers.

When Artuso moved to open up the air vents under orders from a British Navy officer on the intercom to help to improve the submarine’s buoyancy, the Royal Marine guard thought that he was trying to pull the “forbidden levers” and shot Artuso at close range “in the face, neck and chest”.

Artuso had been captured along with the rest of the 60-man crew on the Argentine submarine, Santa Fe, after it was spotted by British Navy forces on the surface about five miles (8km) from Grytviken in South Georgia on April 25, 1982.

The marine, armed with a 9mm Browning pistol, was “keyed up and wary” because of large quantities of loaded weapons and ammunition on the Argentine submarine and told the Royal Navy technician that “he would shoot him [Artuso] in the head if he touched [the levers]”.The board’s report concluded that the misidentification of the main vent levers “provides the key to this whole tragic incident”. But it ruled that no one could be accused of culpable negligence.

Artuso was buried with full naval honours at Grytviken on April 30, 1982.

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