Krecker, Sterling Schlicter, MoMM2c

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. Motor Machinist's Mate, Second Class Krecker was listed as missing in action and later declared dead 8 November 1945.

The official Navy muster rolls have MoMM2 Krecker's middle name spelled "Schlicter" while other sources have it spelled "Schlichter".

Submarine war patrols: USS Shark (SS-314) - 1st through 3rd

Sterling Schlichter Krecker was born October 26, 1919 in Norristown, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, one of eight children born to Ralph Augustus and Mary (Schlichter) Krecker. He had three brothers and four sisters. The family lived on Buttonwood Street in Norristown, where his father worked in 1920 as a motor inspector for the electric railroad. In 1930 his father worked as a machinist at a knitting mill and in 1940 as a machinist at a manufacturing plant. Sterling graduated from Norristown Area High School in 1937. While in high school he was in the hiking and rifle clubs, was on the track and cross-country team and a member of the swimming squad. Before entering the service he was employed by the Wildman Manufacturing Company in Norristown, as an apprentice machinist.
 

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, on December 20, 1941, he enlisted in the Navy at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His basic training was at Newport, Rhode Island from December 1941 to February 1942. He trained at Great Lakes, Illinois from February 1942 to June 1943, then attended Submarine School at Sub Base Groton / New London, Connecticut from June 1942 to February 1944.
 

He reported aboard the USS Shark (SS-314) in February 1944 as a Motor Machinist's Mate Third Class for her commissioning. Following shakedown off New London, Connecticut, Shark transited the Panama Canal and arrived 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 MoMM2c Sterling S. Krecker are unaccounted for. His name appears on the Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, the Philippines. A memorial marker is in Valley Forge Gardens Cemetery, King of Prussia, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania: Section3, Lot 275c, Grave 4.
 

Reference:
https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=307577
1920; Census Place: Norristown Ward 11, Montgomery, Pennsylvania; Page: 3B; ED: 151
1930; Census Place: Norristown, Montgomery, Pennsylvania; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0173
1940; Census Place: Norristown, Montgomery, Pennsylvania; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 46-158
Ancestry.com: U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012; Norristown Area High School; Year: 1937
Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
Pennsylvania, U.S., Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966
Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1929-1990; Series Number: Series 1
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213943255/sterling-s-krecker
U.S. Submarine Losses World War II, NAVPERS 15,784, 1949
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shark_(SS-314)

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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.