TITLE: is every subgroup of a semi-direct product of groups a semi-direct product of subgroups?
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: The title pretty much says it all... anyway... let $G$ be a semi-direct product of $N$ by $Q$, and let $H$ be a subgroup of $G$.
Can one always find subgroups $N_1$ and $Q_1$, of $N$ and $Q$ respectively, such that $H$ is the semi-direct product of these two groups?
If not in general, can one say anything about the following cases:
i) $G = \text{GL}(n,K)$, i.e. the general linear group of dimension $n$ over some field $K$
ii) $G = \text{Aff}(E)$, i.e. the group of all affine motions of some (finite dimensional) linear space

thx in advance

REPLY [6 votes]: In addition to what others have said, let me remark that it is not even true that any subgroup is isomorphic to a semi-direct product of subgroups (note that this weaker notion does take care of the counterexamples given, since the diagonal group is isomorphic to a semi-direct product of subgroups).
Here is an example: let $D$ be the dihedral group of order $2^{n+1}$:
$$
D=\langle x,c | x^2=c^{2^n}=1, xcx=c^{-1}\rangle.
$$
Let $H=\langle h| h^{2^n}=1\rangle$ act on $D$ via $x^h = cx$, $c^h=c$, form the semi-direct product $G=D\rtimes H$. Then, you can check that the element $xh$ has order $2^{n+1}$, so the cyclic group generated by it is not isomorphic to a semi-direct product of any subgroups of $D$ and/or $H$.