Its possible to make a successful beam attack, but its not easy!
Down the throat is good, up the wake is tough, you have to be so VERY close before you drop, and if someone turns cv forget it.
If anyone is manning 5" guns forget torp attacks period.
If your coming in at 90 degrees, be as low as you can be, below 200 airspeed. I like to jump to ext view, put the tower of the cv on the edge of my monitor. Release not when you see the yellow ack, but when they are raising white waterspouts all around you. Or when you hear the first ping.
ps do a flat rudder turn to exit if you live that long.
Soon as you pull up & around the ack has a MUCH bigger target to hit.