Question regarding AA guns and deflective shooting
 

To what extent do I need to employ deflective shooting when firing AA guns? I've found that the only planes I seem to be able to score hits on easily are Swordfish.. which represent practically no challenge at all. Any kind of aircraft that moves faster than that though I can't seem to hit whatsoever. I'm not talking kills, more so just regular hits.

I've spent about 18 years playing IL2 as well as other Air combat sims going back to the DOS version of B17 Flying fortress and they require quite a skill when it comes to deflective shooting (knowing where to aim in relation to the direction and incoming speed of Aircraft to score a hit) so i've learned a system in those games, which works across games as it happens for using a gunners sight to accurately judge the speed and angle of an incoming attacker and adjust my aim accordingly (this this WW2 training film aimed at wastegunners basically outlines what I attempt to do).

Obviously, firing from a submarine moving slowly through the sea requires different calculations to a plane, but i'm suprised at how different as I never seem to hit anything unless it's moving very slowly. The most success i've had in game is when I aim directly on a target, my deflective shooting techniques don't seem to make any difference, so I was wondering if ballistics were fully implemented or if there was only bullet drop? and if anyone has any techniques that work?

Best deflection is the angle of your boat as it crash dives to avoid the plane <g>

Sorry, don't know the answer to your question.

You can laugh but it actually works in combat flight sims! the gunners sight can be used as a reference to calculate target speed, distance and to estimate your best time to shoot/place to aim.

I'm going to do some experimentation I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30dKkk4yaGI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKdLbEQ6Dv8

As some of the guys implied... the best thing to do is dive! But if you need to shoot, the best “lead” angle is determined visually between all tracers in the ammo belt. Good luck! I did a whole video on why you never use FLAK!

https://youtu.be/pQ7UqkzVo8I

Take all your aa gunnery skills to task.
Shooting planes is just like firing torpedoes only much, much faster.
Remember, the aircraft can do anything you can do at least 10 times faster.
The best defense is to dive deep and quickly. Only man the guns if you don't have the range (inside of 1000m) to crash dive safely, or if you are really bored and desperately need some action.