Something said by the enemies: Group Captain W.G.G. Duncan Smth, D.S.O., D.F.C., in "Spitfire into battle", John Murray (Publishers), Paperback edition 2002, pag. 173-4:
"I returned to Lecce, as this airfield was only slightly damaged and I tought it would do very well as a second string, in case Grottaglie became overcrowded. After a pleasant meal of spaghetti with the Italian pilots, I took the opportunity of inspecting the Macchi 205s and a couple of Re 2001/5s (sic) I found parked near the flight offices. The Re 2001/5 s were fairly new to the Italian Air Force, and only a handful had been built. They had a wing shape very similar to the Spitfire, a powerful engine and were armed with four cannons (sic). Having had a dog-fight with one of them, I am convinced we would have been hard pressed to cope in our Spitfires operationally, if the Italians or Germans had had a few Squadrons equipped with these aircraft at the beginning of the Sicily campaign ot in operations from Malta. Fast, and with an excellent manoeuvrability, the Re 2001/5 was althogeter a superb aeroplane. Tough I didn't get a chance to fly one, I did manage to fly the Macchi 205 and the Me 109G. Neither of these aircraft measured up to the capabilities of the Re 2001/5 series in manoeuvrability or rate of climb. (omissis) It is a pity, however, that no Re 2001/5 survive to this day, because they were fine examples of the Italian engineering craftmanship."
At least Re 2005 was seen by a few Allied Pilots. But did the 36 Re 2005 built ( more or less as the TA 152, if my sources are right) have any impact on the war? Absolutely none. The only impact they had was to attract a huge attack on the Reggiane factory that was completely destroyed, and the same was made, aftre a couple of months, on the factories of G 55......