No, they could not do as you did... but they most likely would not have had torps shot back at them so quickly either. Those had to be made ready, and that probably took a bit longer than a submarine did in getting theirs launched. Of course, if they heard you, they could be at the ready, but just like guns, the torpedo tubes had to be "aimed" or brought to bear, so you usually have about 30 seconds before they respond in-kind. Get your scope back down, and they go back to the neutral position.
In real life, if you read any of the sub reports from the wwII skippers, available at some of the sites (my link is unavailable on the machine I'm on), then you'll find that a goodly percentage of the attacks where done from the surface at night with minimal moon, generally with at least a bit of chop to the water, just so their sub didn't look like a black hole in the ocean or sky, nor did it "reflect" back at the observer. That way, surface speed was brought to bear with the newer fleetboats for escape. However, that would not be possible in a Task Force attack, since some the IJN DD could do over 35 knots, while the sub was stuck at 20. The periscope could not be used for most attacks in the dark - it was too dark!...
- SH4 does not do too well with night surface attacks, or if it does, it has "blind" AI during the daylight hours on the surface...
