IIRC, it was Claire Chennault (Flying Tiger fame) and his pilots who developed those tactics for their P-40’s. They dove on fighters/bombers for a firing pass and then pulled up into a zoom climb to regain altitude. Rinse and repeat. Avoid dogfighting against opponents with superior maneuverability (e.g., Zeros or BF-109’s).
Chennault used the high speed diving attack and pass through on the Japanese. But at lower altitudes, below 16,000 feet, the P-40 could literally out-turn and out roll a 109.
And a lot gets made of how it couldn’t outmaneuver a Zero or Oscar, but that didn’t make the P-40 bad. There was no other fighter on earth including the Spitfire that could maneuver with those Jap planes.
But the P-40 was used throughout the war in both the Pacific, Europe, and Russia.