I am not sure how many planes were in the attack but I think they did attempt something like that but I would guess the Japanese kept their ships far enough apart so any attack would have been against only one ship.
I just remembered I have seen film of German Condor four engined bombers attacking armed convoys. They were literally flying at mast level. They had probably figured out that was the way to attack shipping.
On the other hand the B-17s had to worry about Japanese fighters so they may have stayed so high that the fighters would have a hard time reaching them. also made it harder for AA to hit them.
Still it was not an effective way to attack ships.