The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (410818) Warrant Officer Maxwell John George Schultz, No. 454 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Charis May, the story for this day was on (410818) Warrant Officer Maxwell John George Schultz, No. 454 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

Due to Technical error the video footage is not available to the public.

410818 Warrant Officer Maxwell John George Schultz, No. 454 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 1 June 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 10 September 2015

Today we pay tribute to Warrant Officer Maxwell John George Schultz, who was killed on active service with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1944.

Born in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Carlton on 9 September 1921, Maxwell John George Schultz was the son of Max Oscar Schultz and Elsie Irene Horton.

As a young man Schultz attended St Georges School in Rathdowne Street, Carlton. Following his schooling he was employed as a storeman at the Radio Corporation in South Melbourne, where he was also a wireless operator in training.

Schultz enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in February 1942, aged 20, and began training as a wireless operator. In January 1943 he embarked from Melbourne for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Schultz was one of approximately 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined squadrons in Britain throughout the course of the war.

After further specialist training in Britain, Schultz was posted in January 1944 to the Mediterranean, where he joined No. 454 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force.

At this stage the squadron was based in Egypt, where it was part of No. 201 Group of the Royal Air Force Middle East Command, and was equipped with the two-engine Martin Baltimore light attack bomber. During the period Schultz was with the squadron it mostly operated as a maritime patrol squadron, targeting enemy submarines and shipping, as well as operating against targets in mainland Greece and the Greek islands.

On 1 June 1944 the Baltimore in which Schultz was wireless operator was taking part in a raid on a German convoy that had left the Port of Piraeus in Greece, bound for Crete. Schultz’s Baltimore, which was shadowing the convoy and had been fighting off persistent attacks by the convoy’s accompanying German fighter escort, was last seen about 50 miles north of Crete. It was later presumed that the aircraft had been shot down by enemy fire.

Schultz and his three Australian crewmates – George Liels, Max Short, and Edward Quinlan – were all killed. Maxwell Schultz was 22 years old.

The bodies of the aircrew were never recovered, and their names are commemorated on the Alamein Memorial at the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery at El Alamein.

Schultz’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 other Australians who died serving in the Second World War.
This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Warrant Officer Maxwell John George Schultz, and all of those Australians who gave their lives for their nation.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section