With the outbreak of the war, Strecker's division was part of XX Corps, in the 8th Army. He participated in the battles of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes. The division was then transferred to the German 9th Army, arriving in the middle of October, and fought in the Battles of Vistula River and Łódź as part of 9th Army's XVI Corps. In February the division was transferred back to the 8th Army to participate in the counter-offensive into Russia where it was engaged in heavy fighting until May 1916. After a brief rest and refit Strecker and his unit where then sent south, to conduct operations in Romania. Just prior to his unit entering Bucharest in December Strecker, by then a Hauptmann, was transferred to the railway department of the German General Staff. Such assignments were normal for successful staff officers such as Strecker but he disliked the assignment, complaining to a friend from the regiment that he was unhappy and depressed in the impersonal and highly formal atmosphere of the General Staff.