This Fallen Navy Profile is not currently maintained by any Member.
If you would like to take responsibility for researching and maintaining this Fallen profile please click
HERE
Casualty Info
Home Town Hanover, PA
Last Address 533 South Franklin St Hanover, PA
Casualty Date Oct 24, 1944
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location East China Sea
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Mount Olivet Cemetery - Hanover, Pennsylvania
Wall/Plot Coordinates (memorial marker)
Military Service Number 2 586 201
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
The USS Shark (SS-314) was lost on her third patrol. She was last heard from on 24 October 1944 when she radioed the Submarine Seadragon that she was about to attack a Japanese freighter. She was presumed lost on 27 November 1944 and the cause of her loss in unknown. Yeoman, Third Class Muntz was listed as missing in action and later declared dead 8 November 1945.
Comments/Citation:
Robert William Muntz was born September 21, 1926 in York, Hanover county, Pennsylvania, son of Harry William and Annie T. (Hankle) Muntz. He had one older sister, Helen, who served with the Waves during WWII. The family lived in York county, where his father worked as an assembler in a shoe factory. Robert was a junior student at Eichelberger Senior High School when he enlisted in the Navy following his seventeenth birthday. His enlistment was on September 28, 1943 at Baltimore, Maryland.
His basic training was at Bainbridge, Maryland. Robert then attended Submarine School at Sub Base, Groton /New London, Connecticut. He was home on leave for Easter 1944, then reported aboard the USS Shark (SS-314).
Newly commissioned, the Shark left New London, Connecticut, transiting the Panama Canal and arriving at Pearl Harbor on 24 April 1944 for final training in the Hawaiian area. Her first war patrol commenced on 16 May 1944 and was conducted in waters west of the Mariana Islands as part of a coordinated attack group with submarines USS Pintado and USS Pilotfish. After successfully torpedoing at least four enemy cargo ships, she returned to Midway Island for refit on 17 June. Shark put to sea on 10 July for her second war patrol, this time in the waters off the Volcano Islands and Bonin Islands. Later she went to Iwo Jima where she took up lifeguard station in support of carrier airstrikes. On the afternoon of 4 August, Shark rescued two airmen from a crashed USS Lexington. She terminated her lifeguard duties on 19 August and touched at Midway Island before arriving at Pearl Harbor ten days later.
The Shark left Pearl Harbor on 23 September 1944, and proceeded to Saipan to begin her third war patrol with the Seadragon and Blackfish. The three vessels left Saipan on 3 October to conduct a coordinated patrol in the vicinity of Luzon Strait. On 22 October, SHARK reported having contacted four large enemy vessels in Latitude 20° 28'N, Longitude 117° 50'E. She still had her full load of torpedoes aboard, so had not made an attack. SHARK addressed no further messages to bases, but on 24 October, SEADRAGON received a message from her stating that she had made radar contact with a single freighter, and that she was going in to attack. This was the last message received from SHARK.
On 13 November 1944, a dispatch originated by Commander Naval Unit, Fourteenth Air Force, stated that a Japanese ship enroute from Manila to Japan, with 1,800 American prisoners of war had been sunk on 24 October by an American submarine in a torpedo attack. No other submarine reported the attack, and since SHARK had given SEADRAGON a contact report only a few hours before the sinking, and could not be raised by radio after it, it can only be assumed that SHARK made the attack described and perished during or after it. Five prisoners who survived and subsequently reached China stated that conditions on the prison ship were so intolerable that the prisoners prayed for deliverance from their misery by a torpedo or bomb. Because many prisoners of war had been rescued from the water by submarines after sinking vessels in which they were being transported, U.S. submarines had been instructed to search for Allied survivors in the vicinity of all sinkings of Empire-bound Japanese ships. SHARK may well have been sunk trying to rescue American prisoners of war. All attempts to contact SHARK by radio failed and on 27 November she was reported as presumed lost.
A report from the Japanese received after the close of the war on anti-submarine attacks records the attack made by SHARK on 24 October 1944, in Latitude 20° 41'N, Longitude 118° 27'E. Depth charges were dropped 17 times, and the enemy reports having seen "bubbles, and heavy oil, clothes, cork, etc." Several American submarines report having been attacked on this date near the position given, but as no one reported the attack on the convoy cited above, this attack is considered the most probable cause of SHARK's loss.
The 87 crew members, missing since October 24, 1944, were officially declared dead November 8, 1945. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
The remains of YN3c Robert W. Muntz are unaccounted for. His name appears on the Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, the Philippines. A memorial stone is in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, Hanover, York county, Pennsylvania.
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.
Submarine war patrols: USS Shark (SS-314) - 2nd and 3rd
The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.
Joining SEADRAGON and BLACKFISH at Pearl Harbor, the second SHARK (Cdr. E. N. Blakely) left that place on 23 September 1944, and proceeded to Saipan to begin her third war patrol. The three vessels left the latter island on 3 October to conduct a coordinated patrol in the vicinity of Luzon Strait. Commander Blakely had command of this coordinated attack group, called Blakely's Behemoths.
On 22 October, SHARK reported having contacted four large enemy vessels in Latitude 20° 28'N, Longitude 117° 50'E. She still had her full load of torpedoes aboard, so had not made an attack. SHARK addressed no further messages to bases, but on 24 October, SEADRAGON received a message from her stating that she had made radar contact with a single freighter, and that she was going in to attack. This was the last message received from SHARK.
However, on 13 November 1944, a despatch originated by Commander Naval Unit, Fourteenth Air Force, stated that a Japanese ship enroute from Manila to Japan, with 1800 American prisoners of war had been sunk on 24 October by an American submarine in a torpedo attack. No other submarine reported the attack, and since SHARK had given SEADRAGON a contact report only a few hours before the sinking, and could not be raised by radio after it, it can only be assumed that SHARK made the attack described and perished during or after it. Five prisoners who survived and subsequently reached China stated that conditions on the prison ship were so intolerable that the prisoners prayed for deliverance from their misery by a torpedo or bomb. Because many prisoners of war had been rescued from the water by submarines after sinking vessels in which they were being transported, U.S. submarines had been instructed to search for Allied survivors in the vicinity of all sinkings of Empire bound Japanese ships. SHARK may well have been sunk trying to rescue American prisoners of war. All attempts to contact SHARK by radio failed and on 27 November she was reported as presumed lost.
A report from the Japanese received after the close of the war on anti-submarine attacks; records the attack made by SHARK on 24 October 1944, in Latitude 20° 41'N, Longitude 118° 27'E. Depth charges were dropped 17 times, and the enemy reports having seen "bubbles, and heavy oil, clothes, cork, etc." Several American submarines report having been attacked on this date near the position given, but in view of the fact that none reported the attack on the convoy cited above, this attack is considered the most probable cause of SHARK's loss.
SHARK sank five ships, totaling 32,200 tons and damaged two, for 9,900 tons prior to her last patrol. Her first patrol was in the area west of the Marianas. SHARK sank two freighters, a transport and a large tanker, and damaged a freighter, In her second patrol in the Bonins, SHARK sank a medium freighter.
