SNIP

The FLying Tigers rarely, if ever, met up with Zeros. The Japanese
air effort in Western China was performed by the Army, not the Navy.
Be that as it may, I don't think it would have mattered. The Energy
Maneuverability "Blow through disengage, climb back, repeat as needed"
tactic goes back to the First World War. While dogfighting is fun
when nobody's shooting at you, it's like hand-to-hand combat. You
only engage in it if you have no other choice. (As in weaponless,
naked, and with at least one foot nailed to the floor.)
It does, however, require foreknowledge of an incoming raid, so that
the interceptors can take off, form up, and climb to their height
advantage. Once they've got that, they can blow through the escorts
and hit the bombers before the escorts can counter them.
That certainly wasn't something being newly re-learned - It was the
main thrust of Fighter COmmand during the Battle of Britain, after
all.
Chennault went to a great effort to build an early warning net, which,
even though it didn't have radar, allowed the Tigers to be ready when
the attacks came. That sort of warning/command and control network
didnt' exist in Hawaii, the, Philippines, Malaysia, or the Dutch East
Indies. The first warning that they got was when the Japanese came
over the horizon, and by then it was too late.

It still works, even in modern contexts. During Rolling Thunder,
F-105s shot down something over 20 MiG-17s, while losing 4. While teh
MiG-17 has astonishing maneuverability, it wasn't an actual advantage
in combat. Close to 20 105s were shot down by MiG-21s, using hich
speed pop up tactics to blow through the formation, fire their
missiles, and get gone before the Thuds could react.

The Mig-17's maneuverability was only useful in a turning engagement. The
105's, once they delivered their ordnance were intent on DISengagement (at
very high speed). The guns-only (1500' range in rear quarter),
speed-limited (very limited G above 450KIAS) Mig-17 couldn't hunt in that
environment. You are correct, the missile carrying Mig-21 was far more
suited to the environment. But tactics had little to do with it.

It's always great to discuss the concept of blowing through an engagement,
extending out and then choosing whether or not to re-engage. But, if a
particularly bogey decides you're "It" that can quickly deteriorate into the
engagement you don't want. Been there, done that countless times on both
sides of the arena ... as adversary and as fighter.

R / John