Ah, luckily you posted again, Ball, so I have not to go back...
Yes, Humble exaggerated a bit, but it was right in one thing:
By Mid 1942 many elements of the luftwaffe felt that the 109 had reached its development apex and that the 190 was lacking as a pure fighter. German pilots had been very impressed with both the 205 and the G55. The luftwaffe flew combat trials and actually recommended that the G.55 replace the 109 in german production. The G.55 was much more intricate and required more then double the man hours to produce. That combined with political realities scuttled the proposal....
RLM did start a "Centauro project" for the mass production of G.55 in Italy and in Germany. The RLM was impressed by the capabilities of the plane and its possible evolution, so impressed that they sent 3 DB603 in Italy to be mounted on 3 G.55 of the 0 series (the preproduction series). 1 of them was completed and transferred to Reichlin, the experimental center of LW... they really wanted to produce the G.55, 'cause they did recognize its full potential.
As for the confrontation with 109, Frode, the Centauro was a bit slower than the Gustav, but more stable and more maneuverable. I have some publication about the G.55 and I'm gonna post excerpts here in the forum but they're mostly in italian, so I need to translate them, it'll take me a while
So we can make happy even our friend Willfly
(btw, Krusty, this one --->
is one of them!
)
Ike, it would be nice to have the Re.2005, too, but it was really built in too few number and served in 1 squadriglia only (a staffel, in LW terms... only 12 operational, really too few...), it'll never make it in AH..
but if you want to download Target Tobruk....
Re.2005
G.55