[jwilliamson]

Some WW2 battles were fought at significantly shorter ranges than that. Just in the Malta campaign, at Cape Passero the Italians closed to around 1700m before opening fire. In the attack on the Tarigo convoy, the British closed to 1800m before opening fire and approached as close as 50m to the Italian ships.

[forgot_account]

Another good example is the Battle of Cape Matapan where British battleships obliterated Italian cruisers at 3500m, at night, in a few minutes.