I have a IXc now with standart tower #1 (one flak) and the air umbrella etc really gets annoying as one can not even reload a single torp from the externals without being disturbed by the flyboys.
Is it worth getting a #3 tower with all that flak and "waste" the men as flak crew when they could work as "Maschinist" or "Torpedoschütze" ? (your oppinion? experience - from your point of view)
After some tests around St.George Canal:
I have also experience, though having the flak stations (in a test run with the #3 tower) maned, not all men firing.
(all have Flak "experience" though I cheatet a bit with SH3Commander assigning experienced Crewman with flak experience

)
- the station was label 100% operational (green bar 100% full)
- the WO also has Flak experience so for sure 100% flak

Only the Quad fired.

(thats only half of all the flak)
Do only Petty Officers (German: Maat - Maate(pl)) fire flak guns?
or what went wrong... cause when I maned the station with three Petty Officers and a crew man (all Flakgunners

) they fired all and brought a bomber down before it was even close enough to fire succesfull at us let alone drop a single DC/bomb
I will do further tests with "specialized" crewman - this is one thing SH3Commander seems to enable for further realism... I have not found the green bar increase but you can make sure to have at least one higher experienced crewman assigned to the station by double clicking as it seems... a slight advantage nevertheless