Indom's Hurrie squadron, 880 NAS, seems from what I can find to be probably at least average in experience and ability by FAA standards of the time. The star of the show would have been the famous Dickie Cork, but most of the rest of the squadron seem to have had some actual air fighting experience, such as taking part in Furious' raids on Petsamo.
During Operation Pedestal, the squadron claimed 8 kills for three losses; one of the losses, I think, was due to friendly AA fire. Hugh Popham also spread a Hurrie all over Victorious' deck when he and his section were delayed landing due to friendly fire and he landed on the closest carrier he could find, while she was still turning into the wind, with empty fuel tanks.
Pedestal had some very heavy attacks, with up to 43 Sm 79s in a single attack and cover from Reggiane 2000s, Me 110s and some 109s. Due to the loss of Eagle and the fact that Victorious mainly had Fulmars, 880 probably had the major share of the work although I can't find full details. Dickie Cork claimed four kills.
O'Hara notes that the Japanese naval attache of the time believed that Italian aircraft and crew were "sound" and their only real issue was lack of cooperation between the navy and the air force.
One of 880's lost aircraft went down to a 110, the squadron leader went down when disobeying his own ferocious warnings about stern-on attacks against bombers (in this case a bunch of He 111s) and I can't find the the other loss.
Some of Indomitable's crew were pretty confident with their fighter controllers, so it could be safe to assume that 880's aircraft would have done a good job, messed up some of the attacks, and downed maybe say 4-6 Japanese bombers. The Fulmars could have knocked down two or three.
However, would they have done a reversal of Midway and gone after the high level bombers and left the torpedo bombers to wreak havoc? We'll never know.
The other issue is that the PoW suffered a bit of a freak hit. If one of her engineer officers hadn't re-started the propeller shaft after it was smashed (which was, from what I recall, perfectly reasonable given what he knew) she may have done much better. So it would be reasonable to assume that particular hit, the first one if I recall correctly, would not have caused the enormously damaging chain of events that occurred IRL.
One other factor is that the time line seems to make it unlikely, as noted above, that Indomitable would have arrived on time anyway.
During Operation Pedestal, the squadron claimed 8 kills for three losses; one of the losses, I think, was due to friendly AA fire. Hugh Popham also spread a Hurrie all over Victorious' deck when he and his section were delayed landing due to friendly fire and he landed on the closest carrier he could find, while she was still turning into the wind, with empty fuel tanks.
Pedestal had some very heavy attacks, with up to 43 Sm 79s in a single attack and cover from Reggiane 2000s, Me 110s and some 109s. Due to the loss of Eagle and the fact that Victorious mainly had Fulmars, 880 probably had the major share of the work although I can't find full details. Dickie Cork claimed four kills.
O'Hara notes that the Japanese naval attache of the time believed that Italian aircraft and crew were "sound" and their only real issue was lack of cooperation between the navy and the air force.
One of 880's lost aircraft went down to a 110, the squadron leader went down when disobeying his own ferocious warnings about stern-on attacks against bombers (in this case a bunch of He 111s) and I can't find the the other loss.
Some of Indomitable's crew were pretty confident with their fighter controllers, so it could be safe to assume that 880's aircraft would have done a good job, messed up some of the attacks, and downed maybe say 4-6 Japanese bombers. The Fulmars could have knocked down two or three.
However, would they have done a reversal of Midway and gone after the high level bombers and left the torpedo bombers to wreak havoc? We'll never know.
The other issue is that the PoW suffered a bit of a freak hit. If one of her engineer officers hadn't re-started the propeller shaft after it was smashed (which was, from what I recall, perfectly reasonable given what he knew) she may have done much better. So it would be reasonable to assume that particular hit, the first one if I recall correctly, would not have caused the enormously damaging chain of events that occurred IRL.
One other factor is that the time line seems to make it unlikely, as noted above, that Indomitable would have arrived on time anyway.