I'm not sure that enough Mc.205s got into service to really form an informed opinion. The 202 was supposed to be pretty good and the 205 added power and firepower so I imagine it could handle itself very well.
They would have to been in high numbers by 1943 to get a full successful service record, and they never really got into the war until 1941. And I don't think their pre-war projects were exactly on par with others.
Yeah. It took me a second but I realized that was what you meant. I just thought I woudl throw some numbers on the 205 out there. At the time of the Italian Armistace, the RA only had the grand total of 66 in service.
So, it's career could have never been full, and success filled. Still, if it could dogfight with the best of them, that's pretty good, especially for the Italians.
I am aware of the Afrika Corps air units. But if the feeling was the same as in the air, the German pilots would have been sick of serving alongside the Italians.
A lot of Germans on the ground thought so, and Erwin Rommel was sick of the lack of command skills possesed by the Italian Commanders. Rommel actually made himself General of Axis forces in Africa.
He never believed that the Italian fighters, or commanders had the capability to fight an effective war against such a 'worthy foe' as the British. He tried his hardest to relegate them to secondary roles but found with lack of his own German troops he had to use the Italians to cover vital flanks which sometimes proved a fatal flaw.
Von Paulus had the same problem with the Romanians, and his feeling was strengthened in Stalingrad when the only place the Russians broke out was through the Romanian held part of the line.