Comments by "Frank DeMaris" (@kemarisite) on "The Drydock - Episode 159" video.

@0Fingolfin0 the short answer is "at typical battle ranges", so the immune zone starts in the 15-20,000 yard range. Smaller weapons (cruiser guns, basically) can penetrate fairly thick armor at very close range (see Hiei on November 13, 1942), but it's very unusual to get that close without getting shot to pieces. Even smaller guns (destroyer guns or dual-purpose secondary battleship and cruiser guns) generally don't even have an AP shell, but can be useful for wrecking (as Walter said) the unarmored upper works and the ends of the hull outside the armor belt.
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BTW, I wouldn't exclude the Tribals just because they're a "one of", but because of the general deployment situation. Each of the three Taffys had a screen that was a mix of fleet destroyers and destroyer escorts, and the size of the Fletcher swarm means there are definitely a few available to fill out the screen of escort carrier task forces. The Tribals are such large and powerful destroyers that I can't imagine them screening lowly escort carriers as opposed to capital units except at desperate need.
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USS Ward (DD-149) was a Wickes class destroyer converted to a High Speed Transport (APD) in early 1943. The US built several dozen APDs during the war, converting them from the WW1 destroyers, and obviously found them useful enough to have made so many conversions.
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@calvingreene90 "fast" and "well-armed" for transports, translating into a speed in the mid-20s of knots and a main battery of three 3"/50 guns. Two of them tried to intercept a Japanese submarine shelling Guadalcanal, found it was actually a group of Japanese destroyers shelling the island, and were quickly shot to pieces.
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@michaelmacleod7051 I'm inclined to doubt it. Remember that the Versailles treaty restricted a lot more than just the fleet (100,000 man army of long-service professionals, completed prohibited from having certain weapon classes like tanks and subs, occupation of the Rhineland), and there is still plenty of room for the "stab in the back" myth to develop.
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Even the US APDs weren't all that high speed, only in comparison with conventional cargo or troop transports. They took a four-stacker Clemson or Wickes destroyer, ripped out half the boilers (already bad for speed) and completely reworked the weapons (the two sunk early on off Guadalcanal had, IIRC, three 3" guns that they attempted to engage a Japaneses sub, oops, a destroyer squadron, with). Actual high speed for the APDs is in the mid-20s of knots.
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