DOB/DOD: January 30, 1900 (West Ham, London, England) – February 23, 1943; 43 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Isabel T. “Belle” Makonis (1918-1951) in 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Isabel later married William Von Winkle of Hamden, Connecticut, in April 1944.
LOCAL ADDRESS: 1 Smith Street, West Haven
SERVICE NUMBER: Z-172822
FAMILY: Born to Joseph (1863-1915) and Ellen Lovett Cooper (1861-1910). Four sisters, Maud Cooper Barnes (1896-1979), Katherine (1897-?), Ellen K. (1904-1991), and Margaret Cooper Lane (1905-?). Two brothers, William J. (1901-?) and Alfred (1907-?).
CIRCUMSTANCES: Joseph Michael Cooper was born in London, England. He later emigrated to the United States and lived in West Haven, Connecticut. He married Isabel Mackonis on 28 March 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Fort Trumbull Merchant Marine Officers School in New London, Connecticut.
On April 8, 1942, he survived an attempt by the Germans to sink his ship, the Esso Baton Rouge, off the coast of Georgia. The survivors spent 12 hours in the boat waiting to be rescued. Their ship was repaired and recommissioned as “Esso Baton Rouge II”.
On February 23, 1943, they were torpedoed in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. He was one of the four men killed, while most of the crew managed to make it to lifeboats and were rescued.
Between 2217 and 2220 hours on February 23, 1943, U-202 fired four bow torpedoes at convoy UC-1 about 400 miles south of the Azores and damaged the Murena, British Fortitude and Empire Norseman. At 22.21 hours, the stern torpedo was fired, which hit the Esso Baton Rouge.
The Esso Baton Rouge (Master James S. Poche) in station #43 was struck by the torpedo on the starboard side between the engine room and aft bunkers. The explosion carried away the bulkhead between the tanks and the engine room, filled the latter compartment with burning oil, killed one officer and one man on watch below, and stopped the engines. Debris flew over 50 feet in the air, and one armed guard was killed. As the ship started to settle by the stern, the eight officers, 35 men, and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, and eight 20mm guns) abandoned ship in three lifeboats, after three rafts were carried away, because the ship still had headway. Within 90 minutes, all survivors were picked up by HMS Totland (Y 88) (LtCdr L.E. Woodhouse, RN). The tanker finally sank by the stern about 04.00 hours the next morning. Two crew members and one armed guard, all seriously burned from flaming oil, were treated on the sloop and put ashore at Antigua on 4 March. The remaining survivors were transferred to the Dutch steam merchant Maaskerk and arrived in Trinidad on 6 March. [from uboat.net]
The fate of Submarine U-202
The German U-boat U-202 was sunk on June 2, 1943, in the North Atlantic by British warships using depth charges, resulting in 18 crew deaths and 30 survivors; its wreck lies on the seabed as a war grave, undiscovered until recent years by the Sea War Museum. Before its sinking, U-202 was notable for sinking nine ships, landing saboteurs in the U.S. (Operation Pastorius), and serving on its ninth patrol, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Günter Poser.