I just submerge and dont' engage aircraft unless I have to (although recently I *did* duke it out with airplanes in the Strait of Malacca after taking a lot of damage trying to get into Singapore and running out in shallow water with nothing deeper than PD available...and I wasn't sure that the sub would come back up).
Earlier on, however, I did experiment with fighting airplanes more often, just to get a feel for what would happen....after a patrol cut short very early and having to limp home without even *seeing* my first merchant, I stopped doing that. So...as others have said, I recommend not engaging - just dive and wait til dark.
That said, if you *are* going to engage, here's my thoughts on what the problem might be, and some other ideas as well.
1. Ensure you're not out of ammo. Those guns *will* go through ammo fairly quickly. If you've engaged several aircraft already during patrol, this might be the problem - no bullets. The only way I know to check gun ammo (deck or AA) is to actually man the station yourself and see what the ammo count is (personally, I think this info should be included on the subsystems page, along with a LOT of other stuff!).
2. Target aircraft might be outside gun firing arc. If plane coming from behind, forward-mounted gun can't fire, and vice versa. Maneuver the sub to uncover the target from the gun.
These are two things that have happened to me before, and wouldn't be attributable to bugs. The third possibility is enabling "fire at will" or other engagement button, but you said you've already done that.
For those occasional times when I do engage aircraft for whatever reason, here's some things that I do (not 100% sure of their effectiveness).
- Flank Speed. On the theory that a faster-moving target is harder to hit than a slower-moving target.
- Course during approach. During aircraft approach, I maintain a steady course as he lines up and commits to his bombing run. I try to establish a course which will put the plane in the firing arcs of both fore & aft AA guns. Generally, this means putting the target directly on the beam (pros & cons to this...I've decided that the pros outweigh the cons).
- Course at bomb release. About the time I think the a/c is about to release bombs, I throw the rudder over hard in the direction of the aircraft. The idea is to change the position of the sub just enough that the bombs miss a little bit long. Also, this means that on the outbound run of the aircraft, by the time I've turned enough to mask the forward AA gun, my longer-range 40mm is still firing as the a/c gets further away. Which brings up another thing worth mentioning...
- When you get far enough along career-wise to get Balao-class (two AA guns) and the 40mm upgrade, I've settled on mixing the two types. I put a 40mm aft for range and destructive power (ROF sucks...but if just one of those rounds hit, the plane is cooked), but I like the rate & volume of the Twin 20mm, just couldn't go to only 40mm's.
That approach has worked for me *most* of the time...but still hugely inferior to simply going sinker!
Btw...these guns do have a pretty short range...if the aircraft isn't actually attacking you because it didn't see you, it's going to be way too far away for you to engage (plus, why would you want to?). I know this last comment is obvious...but it's another possibility that wasn't mentioned previously.
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