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Whirlwind romances were not uncommon during World War II and the Mahurangi region had its fair share of wartime courtships.
According to Auckland Museum records, nearly 1500 Kiwi women married American servicemen between June 1942 and mid-1944, and New Zealand servicemen returning from Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific brought more than 3000 wives and 700 fiancées home.
For Lois Dill, of Kaipara Flats, her adventure started at an RSA dance in Warkworth.
She was in her late teens and running the family farm with her mother, Dora, in the Kaipara Hills. Women had been ‘man-powered’ into the workforce all over the country to keep the wheels of industry turning, while the men were far away fighting in Europe and the Pacific.
At the time, Lois’ father Fred and two brothers, Trevor and Marcus, were all on active service and they went on to have distinguished military careers.
Fred fought in World War I at Gallipoli and in the Sinai with the Auckland Mounted Rifles and was ranked Lieutenant Colonel by the start of WWII. He didn’t want to see his sons involved in the war, but when they both signed up, he demoted himself to Major so he could join up again and follow them. He fought in North Africa and Greece.
Trevor rose to the rank of Flight Lieutenant in the NZ Air Force and served in England as a navigator with the 75 (NZ) Squadron, attached to the RAF Bomber Command. He flew 47 missions over Germany dodging anti-aircraft fire, searchlights and enemy night fighters.
Lois met a young artilleryman from Maine at the RSA dance . He was one of thousands of young US servicemen stationed at camps around Warkworth.
Tall, with a shock of curly blond hair – a legacy of his German/Dutch heritage – Phil Phillips cut a striking figure. His given name was actually Carroll, but as that was a feminine name in New Zealand, he chose the nickname Phil.
The two started dating, but then Phil was sent to fight in the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides. As an artillery man, he avoided the more dangerous actions of storming the beaches with the marines.
When he returned on leave in 1944, Phil and Lois were married – Lois was 19 and Phil 25. Then, it was back to the fighting and the young couple didn’t see each other again for two years.
The war took Phillips to the Philippines where he contracted malaria. He was shipped back to the US and spent most of the trip in the ship’s hospital. The two atomic bombs that decimated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and brought the war to a close, were dropped while he was at sea.
Back home in the Kaipara Hills, Lois waited for news.
Finally, in May 1946, Australian and New Zealand war brides of US servicemen were able to join their husbands. They departed on a chartered ship and Lois, with just one suitcase, was among them.
The couple settled in Connecticut where Phil worked at a nuclear submarine base. Three children arrived in quick succession, which found Lois struggling with the workload and homesickness. Her mother visited to try to help, making the journey in a Sutherland flying boat, necessitating several stops before she finally arrived.
But after seven years, the young family packed their bags and returned to Warkworth to live, where a fourth child, Raymond, joined the family.
Phil got a job milking cows on a farm in Wayby Valley, then at Kaipara Flats, before the couple bought a dairy farm of their own in the Kaipara Hills.
But farming on a smallholding was tough and eventually they shifted their energies to managing the Sandspit Motor Camp, which Lois’ great aunt Mabel Walker owned. Coastal living became their life, owning and running general stores in Snells Beach and at the Martins Bay Motor Camp. During the quiet winter months, Phil turned his hand to building and built several houses at Snells Beach, before starting a floor sanding business, while Lois worked in the paint shop in Warkworth.
After building their retirement home, Phil started boat building in his retirement including building a 10-metre launch.
Their third child, Larry, who lives in Snells Beach, says he has fond memories of growing up in the Kaipara Hills with all his cousins.
“My parents were both hard working and lived comfortably. If Dad regretted coming back to New Zealand, he never said so.”
Open Invitation
Warkworth Museum has a celebration planned to commemorate 80 years since the US Army’s friendly invasion of Warkworth during World War II, which will be held on Saturday, September 24.
The day will include an official reopening of the new US Army Hut exhibition, displays by the Military
Re-enactment Society of New Zealand and music by the Warkworth Big Band. Activities start at 10am and will wind-up around 3pm.
Entry to the museum will be by donation.
