Here's some extra info:

Prop pitch is like the gears in your car.

A more shallow pitch gives greater acceleration, but lower top speed.
A more advanced pitch gives lower acceleration, but higher top speed.
Lower pitch also means lower load on the propeller, so higher RPM for a given th
rottle setting.
Some non-specific examples :
If low n slow (and you wanna go faster), use low-pitch high-throttle.
If cruising (and you wanna save on fuel), use high-pitch medium-throttle.
If chasing (and you want top speed), use high-pitch high-throttle.
If slowing down (and you wanna airbrake), use low-pitch low-throttle.
etc.
Exceptions:
- If you can set a pitch so low, that relative to the current air velocity, it i
s negative, then higher RPM provides for stronger air-braking.
- If you set the pitch high enough, the propeller blades will become parallel wi
th the air flow going past the airplane. This is called prop feathering. It mean
s that the propeller provides ~0 thrust and ~0 drag.
Note :
One of the issues facing over-revving is insufficient valve springs, which can't
reset the valves quickly enough, and rising pistons will crash into the valves
while they are still closing.
Another issue is centripetal force overloading the internals.
A reverse issue is over-torquing, where too much resistance causes excessive sid
ewall loading, wearing out the engine sleeves/rings, or even bending/breaking th
e piston connecting rods (too much torque + too much resistance), but that's mor
e of a car issue.

Mixture is the fuel air ratio.

Richer means more fuel for the same amount of air.
Note that you can only burn as much fuel as you have oxygen.
If you run rich, you have unburnt fuel in the cylinders.
This has a few effects:
1) Charge cooling. The unburnt fuel absorbs heat from the cylinder. This lowers
combustion temperatures, and reduces the chance of knock (premature-dieseling),
and subsequently allows for higher boost pressures.
2) Too rich smothers the combustion, robbing power.
3) Unburnt fuel leads to a smoke trail from the exhaust, making you more visible
.
4) You use more fuel, so you have lower endurance.
If you run lean:
1) Lower fuel consumption, so better endurance.
2) More complete combustion, so better power, so long as you can still hit the s
ame manifold pressure targets without knock.
3) Too lean and you get knock, which subsequently leads to engine damage (throwi
ng a rod = engine immediately dead).
With altitude, your mixture becomes relatively-rich by virtue of being higher up
where there is less air. You subsequently need to lean out your mixture to brin
g it into balance.

Exceptions are with a 2-stroke. Higher altitude leads to higher RPMs, since the
air is thinner and the propeller has less drag and can rotate faster.
Higher RPMs will need better lubrication.
In most 2-strokes, fuel is mixed with oil, and you both lubricate with and burn
the same mixture. So if you need more lubrication, you need more fuel.
Note :
Knock is like premature-dieseling - i.e. the compression stroke compresses the f
uel air mixture, causing its temperature to rise, and it rises enough to make it
ignite, but that happens before the piston reaches the top, causing the detonat
ion to fire against the engine rotation.
This reverse force can break the piston connecting rods, immediately destroying
the engine.
Some less catastrophic issues are breaking ring lands (the grooves that seat the
ring-seals around the pistons), which will cause metal to shed inside the combu
stion chamber, rolling the dice in regards to the consequences. You could simply
lose some power and burn some oil, or you could damage a valve, or a turbo hot
side, etc.

WW2 engines are from before electronic engine management had maps and automatic
boost control.
Manual boost control lets you set your relative boost pressure.
- For a supercharger, that means changing its 'gear', so it's spinning faster or
slower, or it being disengaged entirely.
- For turbocharger, that means setting the position of the wastegate, to regula
te how much exhaust gas spins the turbine and subsequently drives the compressor
.
In general, more boost = more power. And more boost = higher chance of knock (pr
emature dieseling).
You can mitigate the chance of knock by adding richness to the fuel mixture when
you add more boost pressure.
Too much boost, and there is no amount of fuel or water or alcohol injection tha
t can manage to charge cool sufficiently enough to prevent knock, and you end up
with engine damage.
You also use boost to 'maintain' oxygen content, instead of simply adding power,
because higher up there is less oxygen. This is why boosted engines lose less p
ower with altitude.
Note : Boost increases the effective compression ratio of the engine, because th
e incoming air is pre-compressed.
Basically, boost and mixture need to be in balance with one another.
Boost increases oxygen, richness increases fuel.
You want the leanest mixture that will not knock.
You want the highest boost that will not knock.

Manual control of engine cooling is a balancing act.

You need the engine to be at operating temperature, so before take off the cooli
ng flaps/ducts are often closed, in order to allow the engine temperature to ris
e to the ideal level.
Once at ideal temperature, you want to open/close the cooling ducts to allow for
maintaining the ideal temperature.
A warm engine bay can help prevent carburetor freeze (if there isn't a dedicated
carb heater). Carb freeze is 'kind of a big deal'.
For some airplanes, closed cooling ducts mean higher top speed, due to less drag
form having a more streamlined body.
For other airplanes, closing the ducts robs the airplane of thrust, which lowers
your top speed.
An example is the mustang or spitfire. They make use of something called the "Me
redith effect" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_effect)
Cold air comes in, is compressed as it goes into the radiator inlet, is subseque
ntly heated by the radiator, and then rapidly expands rearwards, and produces a
net thrust.
It's like a jet engine, but with a heat exchanger (radiator) instead of a combus
tion chamber.
I'm not sure if war thunder models the problems of a "cold engine" (in general,
troubles running reliably/steadily), or if the devs are aware of the Meridith ef
fect, so it may simply be that leaving the cooling ducts wide open to avoid over
heat could just be the easiest thing to do.

Magnetos are the analogs to car alternators.

Airplanes, for reliability/redundancy, have two spark plugs per cylinder.
These are driven by separate magnetos (redundancy).
You can elect to fire both plugs per cylinder, or the left plug only per cylinde
r, or the right plug only per cylinder, or other settings such as start/off, etc
.
Two sparks also helps ensure a more complete combustion of fuel air mixture.
TBH, I don't know why you'd ever use any setting but 'both' for flight, but I'm
not technical in that area.
I've only seen people select one or the other, before takeoff.
Just to check that each is working by itself.
-scheherazade?