The clue re 5 Bde was in the name. 5 Airborne Brigade and they were trained to be inserted by air. As a Herc man, we trained with the Bde for their initial insertion followed by a resupply drop within 24 hours and other resupply flights as required. In other words 5 ABN Bde was a light-weight mobile force which relied on re-supply. The Falklands did not present this scenario. As an infantry Bde, it did its best, like all British forces end up doing when the chips are down.
I saw the whole prog and thought that it was a party political broadcast on behalf of 3 Cdo Bde. I don't think rehearsing inter-service rivalry by senior officers on TV is a good way to behave. As for moaning about the lack of a carrier now, the man needs to understand that there is an airfield there. He should have highlighted the need to defend that and the forces on the islands now rather than harping on about the carrier.
Can anybody throw any light on what effort it took to protect the carrier force in 1982 and what would have happened if a carrier had been badly damaged or, heaven forbid, sunk. The prog avoided this; perhaps this was the biggest gamble!
The RAF did not get a mention - just a cursory reference to the one Chinook that got away from the Atlantic Conveyor. That Chinook did sterling work in transporting troops and equipment but why let the facts get in the way of the truth.
Just as an aside, my longest flight during Op Corporate was 26 hrs and 5 mins.