I've never seen the use of a surface attack, day or night, against any ship when there are armed escorts.
Why risk blowing a great convoy setup by having your cover blown? It's hard enough to move into a good strike position when you are hidden! Or worse, fire your torpedo and then be spotted, causing your targets to start zig-zagging and your torpedo to miss.
Sure, you have better speed and maneuverability on the surface, but if you've made a good approach, what good is it? With a good approach, you've got 4 or 5 torpedoes and then you get to cool your heels while they reload - you might as well be submerged then anyway.
I make every attack approach submerged, unless it's an unarmed ship with seas calm enough for the deck gun.
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