HS 123 production ended in 1938 in its role as a Dive Bomber/Ground attack aircraft. It was cheap and rugged and easy to maintain in the field with just a pilot on-board but was intended only as a stop gap until the Ju 87 was ready to take to the skies. That being said some examples were still being used on the Eastern Front until late into the war. Obviously being a bi-plane its performance was not in the same league as many of monoplanes of the day with a top speed of just 211mph, a service ceiling just shy of 30,000ft and a climb rate of 2,900ft/min and a range of 500 miles, but it was highly agile and used this and it's dive capability to get out of trouble on numerous occasions. Prototype versions were built with an uprated engine and enclosed cockpit producing better performance and later versions could be fitted with 20mm cannon under the wings to supplement the forward firing machine guns it already had.
What if someone had predicted that bomber operations over Britain were a probability and rather than suggesting heavier bombers or longer range fighters they came up with the concept of dedicated escort fighters that had a performance similar to their charges as far as speed and service ceiling was concerned, that could follow the proposed Ju88 in a dive to give protection and that could carry similar weaponry to the Bf109. Its role was not to fight one on one with enemy fighters but to hold enemy fighters at bay and allow the Bf109 to do what it did best, free hunting or high altitude escort. Would an improved HS 123 be the right candidate?