A couple of questions....
 

Okay....I started a new career and set out for the Mariana's. I was having a pretty successful first outing when I took some depth charge damage....but after putting the repair team to work....I thought we had it sorted out...nothing was showing on the queue.....so I thought all was repaired....A couple of Bettys were spotted shortly thereafter and I ordered a crash dive....it was anything but....it took forever to get below and we narrowly avoided being blown out of the water.....I could not figure out what was wrong until I viewed the exterior cam and saw that the bow planes were not functioning....my first question is....how can I know this in advance....Is it shown somewhere and I missed it?? Secondly, after expending all my torpedoes and deciding to head back to Pearl I wanted to "return to base"...but there is no button to do just that.....How do I warp back to base or is this even possible in SH IV??

Warping is not possible, as far as damage goes you did everything right, just assume if you take any serious damage diving will no longer be an option - head for base :up:
Think of damage control repairs as temp until you can refit. Its never gonna be 100% until you hit base and refit.