Easiest way to activate my water mod would be through JSGME since it is included there if you have the "SAS Featured JSGME Optional Mods for Modact 5.2x" installed. I recommend getting it from
this postManually installing the water stuff in #SAS will also work, but you'll probably need to reshuffle the directory hierarchy within the water mod directory. Here's how it should work:
[#SAS]
|_[0_HT_Water]
|_[Maps]
|[_Tex]
|_[water]
|_[animated]
|_FoamNV40.tga
If you're using the versions released earlier in the Blender Ocean thread, those are also designed for being put into JSGMEmods directory and activated through JSGME, so they have an internal directory structure that puts them in the MODS directory, rather than #SAS directory. They're outdated for 4.12 and SAS ModAct 5, but since they're still useful for people using 4.11+mods or even 4.10+mods, I've left them in place.
And yes, you
can put the textures in ../IL-2 1946/#SAS/MAPMODS/Maps/Tex/water/animated/ ...if you really want.
But I would recommend getting the optional mods pack, it'll give you the least trouble and probably fastest game load since the water textures are encapsulated in SFS file.