Falklands what if?

I recently watched the 1992 film “An Ungentlemanly Act” about the events leading up to and during the invasion and it got me thinking.

There’s a moment before the Argentine military lands that the commander of the Royal Marines asks the Governor to leave Governors house with the radio and basically keep on the move under the protection of the Royal Marines, deny the Argentine government a formal British surrender and continue to broadcast over the radio to the people.

Or

At the end of the initial invasion a unit under Corporal York found themselves away from the main battle, buried their weapons and reported themselves to the Argentinean forces. York’s decision was because of his fear of reprisals to the civilian population and that he had no Radio. For the benefit of this scenario he will have a working radio.

So what if either of these decisions had been taken differently and the marines kept up some resistance either remaining alive on the terrain and providing intelligence or actively attacking Argentinean forces?

Have you read Red Storm Rising?

I think the issue with this is always going to be a fear of how the civilian will be treated in return, as well as their comrades who were prisoners.

If any section was to remain at large, its far more likely they would keep a low profile, providing intelligence. Possibly they would have been tasked with finding a suitable landing site for SAS/SBS patrols to be inserted by sub plus acting as liaision with ham radio operators on the island who relied info on troop movements as long as possible after the invasion.

Mind you, knowing what the captain and crew of HMS Endeavor were like, wouldn't have put it passed them to try and launch a rescue mission at some stage to get them off the island.

Alan Clark certainly believed that there were orders from the government that the marines should immediately surrender in the event of an invasion. Despite Clark's propensity towards eccentricity in many of his arguments, I think this is quite a persuasive suggestion for the reasons Jason mentioned.

At the time that these decisions were made, it wasn't known that a taskforce would be coming at all. I would have said, that bluster aside - ("[FONT=Arial,Verdana]Don't make yourself too comfy mate, we'll be back"), I would have thought that the likely assumption, at least initially by those on the islands, that the Argentines were there to stay, except for what face-saving measures might be achieved by political negotiations

So if you were on the islands, and assumed that they weren't going to be retaken by military force, [/FONT]what possible purpose would it serve?

This is the scenario - A bunch of Britsh marines hang around getting wet and miserable until they are eventually hunted down and killed - meanwhile Argentine military makes a dirty war on any civilians suspect of assisting the marines...

To make your WI plausible, the troops on the islands need to know that a taskforce will be coming. But if they knew, that pushes the PoD back before the invasion, and then some, and maybe requires a whole change of British government attitude - which may well mean no invasion in the first place.