|
FIREMAN FIRST CLASS LOUIS JOSEPH CONTRAVO, the
son of Thomas and Serena Contravo, of 6508 Roosevelt Avenue,
Pennsauken NJ, was killed in action on May 5, 1944 when the destroyer
escort USS Fechteler DE-157 was sunk by a German submarine in the
Mediterranean. Louis
Contravo grew up in the Cramer Hill section of Camden NJ. In 1930 his
family was renting a home at 2727 Tyler Avenue. At the time of the 1930
census, he was 6 years old. His father was working as an investigator
for a finance company.
Louis Contravo
had attended Veterans Memorial High School in Camden NJ. Sometime in the
mid 1930s the family moved to the Roosevelt Avenue address. Besides
Louis there were three other brothers, Thomas, Eugene C., and Lyn F.,
and two sisters, Serena B. and Gwendolyn T. Contravo.
Louis Contravo entered
the service in November, 1942. He was assigned to a destryer escort, the
USS FECHTELER DE-157. The FECHTELER was commissioned a the Norfolk Navy
Yard on July 1, 1943, with Lt. Commander C.R. Simmers in command.
Between September 8, 1943
and December 31, the FECHTELER made two voyages on the
key convoy route New York-Netherlands West Indies-North Africa,
escorting vulnerable tankers carrying fuel and other oil products
essential to modern warfare. After overhaul at New York City, she took
part in experimental antisubmarine exercises in Narragansett Bay, from
which she sailed February 28, 1944 for the Azores and Londonderry,
North Ireland. Arriving March 6, 1944, she joined the escort of a New
York-bound convoy, reaching the United States March 22.
On April 1, 1944, the FECHTELER sailed from New York for
Hampton Roads, where she joined a convoy for Bizerte, arriving April 22
after coming under heavy enemy air attack 2 days previous. Homeward
bound, on May 5, 1944,
FECHTELER was struck by a homing torpedo from the German submarine U-967 in
the Western Mediterranean off Oran, Algeria. As the ship began to break
in two, and sink, it was abandoned. Twenty-nine were killed, including
Louis Contravo, and twenty-six wounded. USS LANING (DE-159) and other
ships of the convoy rescued 186 survivors.
When the FECHTELER was torpedoed, Louis
Contravo's brother Eugene was also serving in
the Navy. |
