Maurice Tobias Levitus was born in Sydney on 28 March 1910, the third son of Rebecca (née Cohen) and David Levitus, who had recently emigrated from Capetown, South Africa. The family lived in Bondi, Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay, and was involved with the NSW Board of Jewish Education and The Great Synagogue, where Maurice was bar mitzvah in 1923. He attended The Scots College then worked as a salesman, and by the 1930s was manager of the Melbourne office of the family finance business. Maurice married Paula Ruth (née Michaelson) of Kirribilli, “in a quiet wedding at The Great Synagogue” in March 1939 and the couple lived briefly in Armadale, Melbourne.

They returned to Woollahra, Sydney, and adopted the surname of Morris (for reasons that are not clear), then Maurice joined the Australian Military Forces (Artillery) at Paddington in December 1941: NX81840 Maurice Morris. Two other brothers enlisted around this time: Albert in the Army and Reuben in the Volunteer Defence Corps. Meanwhile, their youngest brother, Solomon Levitus, who had enlisted in the RAAF one year earlier, began flying with 150 Sqn of RAF Bomber Command. Maurice was transferred to 19 Field Regiment (NSW) and appointed Acting Bombardier in October 1942. By then he would have learned that Solomon was missing, presumed dead, after a bombing raid over Germany on 3 June: see his separate entry. Maurice joined 232 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery in Townsville in December, and was appointed Lance Sergeant.
After Maurice’s promotion to Sergeant, the unit travelled to Fenton Airfield, 200 km south of Darwin NT, in January 1944 - two months after the final Japanese air-raid on the Australian mainland. The unit was attached to 55 (Composite) Anti-Aircraft Regiment, with some elements deployed to Fannie Bay and Talc Head.

Maurice returned to Sydney in October 1944 for a six-week LAA Gunnery Instructors’ Course and re-joined his unit in Darwin on 19 January 1945. Fatefully, while training its gunners two months later: “On 16.3.45 at about 1110 hours, at Gunsite L.7 adjacent to Larrakeyah Barracks, NX81840 Sgt. Morris M. was killed as a result of being struck in the head by a bullet accidentally discharged from the rifle of a member of a squad he was forming up preparatory to instruction.” A subsequent Court of Enquiry concluded that: “his death was NOT due to culpable negligence on the part of any one person.”

Sergeant Maurice Morris (née Levitus) of 55 AA Regiment (Composite), accidentally killed on 16 March 1945 aged 34, was buried at Adelaide River War Cemetery, NT Australia, and so did not return to his Paula, now aggrieved and a war widow. The deaths of Maurice and Sol Levitus were a tragedy for their family, and marked the fifth pair of brothers from the Australian Jewish community to Die on Service in WWII - and the fifteenth pair since 1900.

Maurice Tobias Levitus was born in Sydney on 28 March 1910, third son of six children to Rebecca Gertrude (née Cohen) and David Levitus, who had recently emigrated from Capetown, South Africa. The family lived in Bondi, Bellevue Hill then Rose Bay, and were involved with The Great Synagogue and NSW Board of Jewish Education. Maurice was bar mitzvah at The Great Synagogue and later in November 1923 won the Board of Jewish Education Ben Wolfe Levy Memorial Prize. He attended The Scots College c. 1915 to 1927, then worked as a salesman and, by 1938, was manager of the Melbourne office of the family finance business. Maurice married Paula Ruth, “daughter of Mr and Mrs A. J. Michaelson of Kirribilli, in a quiet wedding at The Great Synagogue,” Sydney, on 14 March 1939 and the couple lived briefly in Armadale, Melbourne.

They returned to Sydney, living in Queen St, Woollahra, and adopted the surname of Morris (for reasons that are not clear), then Maurice applied to join the Australian Military Forces at Victoria Barracks, Paddington, on 15 December 1941: NX81840 Maurice Morris, in the Artillery. Around this time, his two other brothers enlisted: Albert also in the Army and Reuben in the Volunteer Defence Corps. Meanwhile, their youngest brother, Solomon Levitus, who had enlisted in the RAAF one year earlier, began flying with 150 Sqn of RAF Bomber Command. Maurice was transferred to 19 Field Regiment (NSW) on 19 March 1942 and appointed Acting Bombardier on 9 October. By then he would have learnt that Solomon, known as Sol and captain of a Wellington bomber, was missing presumed dead, after not returning from a bombing raid over Germany on 3 June. Ironically, Maurice joined 232 LAA (Light Anti-Aircraft) Battery in Townsville, Qld, on 9 December and was appointed Lance Sergeant one month later, in January 1943. The 40mm Bofors light anti-aircraft multi-purpose automatic cannon was used extensively by the military in Australia during WWII. It was developed by A.B. Bofors of Sweden in 1929 and was adopted by the British Army in 1938 and by the U.S. Army in 1941, to defend airfields and other military establishments against low level enemy attack. It fired a 1kg high explosive shell at 850 m/sec at 120 rounds per minute. The Bofors maximum ceiling was 7,150 metres but the most effective height was 3,800 metres. The standard mounting for the Bofors gun was a four-wheeled trailer unit, while self-propelled mountings were also produced for the protection of mobile columns.

After further training at the School of Artillery (Qld) in August and September, Maurice was promoted Sergeant, and the battery was attached to 55 (Composite) Anti-Aircraft Regiment. The unit travelled nine days by train from Townsville to Larrimah, NT, reaching Fenton, 200 km south of Darwin, on 7 January 1944 - two months after the final Japanese air-raid on the Australian mainland. During 1943 and 1944, Fenton Airfield was the major offensive base for long-range bombing operations against Japanese forces in the Netherlands East Indies, the north-west Australia area of operations and the South West Pacific Area – firstly by American Liberator bombers and then RAAF squadrons. As well as Fenton, elements of 55 AA Regt were deployed to Fannie Bay and Talc Head.

Maurice left Darwin on 5 October 1944 for Sydney, to attend the School of Artillery, where he undertook a six-week LAA Gunnery Instructors’ Course at Middle Head or Randwick. Qualifying on 25 November 1944, Maurice’s report noted that he: “has worked well and achieved very consistent results. / Good instructional style. Pleasant manner. Sound knowledge. / Good bearing and word of command. Brisk manner, pleasing.” Maurice re-joined his unit in Darwin on 19 January 1945, where he likely implemented his training with its gunners. Fatefully however, as recorded in his service record: “On 16.3.45 at about 1110 hours, at Gunsite L.7 adjacent to Larrakeyah Barracks, NX81840 Sgt. Morris M. was killed as a result of being struck in the head by a bullet accidentally discharged from the rifle of a member of a squad he was forming up preparatory to instruction.” Maurice was taken to 107 Australian General Hospital but had died of cerebral lacerations. A subsequent Court of Enquiry concluded that: “his death was NOT due to culpable negligence on the part of any one person.”

Sergeant Maurice Morris (née Levitus) of 55 AA Regiment (Composite), accidentally killed on 16 March 1945 - 12 days before his 35th birthday - and the second Australian Jewish serviceman to be buried at Adelaide River War Cemetery, NT Australia, did not return to his Paula, now aggrieved and a war widow. The deaths of Maurice and Sol Levitus were a tragedy for their family, and marked the fifth pair of brothers from the Australian Jewish community to Die on Service in WWII - and the fifteenth pair since 1900.

POSTSCRIPT

After the war, Albert Levitus married Betty (née Goldman), who also had two brothers killed in WWII – in the British forces. They had two sons, Geoffrey and Robert. During the preparation of this narrative, it was discovered that Maurice Morris’s original white marble headstone had been replaced in 1984 by a bronze plaque, along with all of the other headstones in the Adelaide River War Cemetery, as a measure against the harsh tropical climate. However, the plaque omitted a Star of David, that was included on his original headstone in accordance with the family’s instructions. Following a request from Robert Levitus, a representative of the Australian War Graves promptly responded in October 2020: “I apologise that this oversight occurred when the headstones were replaced with bronze plaques; however I am pleased that we can now rectify it.”