Louis J. Contravo

Rank: Fireman First Class, U.S. Navy

Serial Number: 02449942

Unit: USS Fechteler (DE-157)

Entered service from: New Jersey

Died: May 5, 1944

Fireman First Class Louis Joseph Contravo was the son of Thomas and Serena Contravo, of 6508 Roosevelt Avenue, Pennsauken, NJ. He grew up in the Cramer Hill section of Camden. In 1930, his family was renting a home at 2727 Tyler Avenue; his father was working as an investigator for a finance company. Louis Contravo attended Veterans Memorial High School in Camden. Sometime in the mid-1930s the family moved to the Roosevelt Avenue address in Pennsauken. Besides Louis, there were three brothers — Thomas, Eugene C., and Lyn F. — and two sisters, Serena B. and Gwendolyn T. Contravo. Louis Contravo entered the service in November 1942 and was assigned to the destroyer escort USS Fechteler (DE-157), commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on July 1, 1943.

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 tankers carrying fuel and other oil products essential to the war effort. After overhaul in New York, she took part in antisubmarine exercises in Narragansett Bay, then sailed February 28, 1944 for the Azores and Londonderry, Northern Ireland. On April 1, 1944, the Fechteler sailed from New York and joined a convoy for Bizerte, arriving April 22 after coming under heavy enemy air attack two days prior.

Homeward bound on May 5, 1944, the 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 were 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.