Non-Fiction – World War 2 – POW Thailand and Japan – UK homeland wartime experiences –
love story
From the UK – a family memoir 1937 to 1946: Britain, Europe, the growth of Hitler’s Germany,
training and deployment of defence forces within the UK, the outbreak of war, fighting in France,
Belgium and surviving Dunkirk, the bombing of London and its surrounds, being shipped off to
Singapore and surrender to Japan, first hand POW accounts in the Thai Jungle building bridges
and railways, Japanese POW camps, survival of extreme hardship, and liberation by the U.S,
following the atomic bombs. Finally, to land back in the UK, being evaluated for mental health
and being awarded multiple medals for bravery and dedication.
This is a story of the fighting spirit, compassion and endurance of Lou Munn, and his love for
Evelyn that drove him forward. Their mutual love. Evelyn never wavered in support for Lou
despite being married for only one week and enduring four years of heart-breaking separation,
not knowing Lou’s fate, many returned letters and the dreaded unknown as she was aware he
was held in captivity.
Also, from the viewpoint and experiences of loved ones left at home in the Motherland –
particularly Evelyn – their marriage of one week before Lou is shipped out – the Witt and Munn
family experiences of wartime England – their commitment, everyday hardships down to the
ration coupons, fear and tragic suicidal outcomes. This is evidenced through over 200 letters
exchanged during this time. From the flush of first love, the endurance of bombings and life
during wartime England.
A factual account based on, and evidenced by correspondence, photographs, voice recordings
and reflections of the Munn and Witt families. Collated by Sarah Munn, daughter of Lou and
Evelyn, and by her brother, Roger, at the request of her father, Lou, who wanted his story told,
unlike so many soldiers who just wanted to forget the horrors they endured. Lou wanted to
record the courage and sacrifices of that time – he asked his children, Sarah and Roger to record
his history. This is his account.
A family memoir, a love story and the heroic war-torn journey of Lou Munn, from undermining
railways with termites to bathing with a sympathetic Japanese family (he had the soap), the
poetry he shared with the love of his life, and how Lou and Evelyn finally emigrated to New
Zealand to start a new life.
Lou died at the age of 85 years, and Evelyn at 103 years. Sarah and Roger remember them. As
will you. This manuscript is dedicated to those who served in World War 2, and their loved ones.

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I grew up in an old southern village where maternal family connexions ran deep. My brother and I enjoyed an overlay of music, poetry and story;   adventurously  streamed inside layers of forest, river, sea, village, domesticity and eventually town life.

  In the late 1950’s  our family migrated to Auckland. The contrast experienced between the new and old countries, challenging particularly for the females in the family. Later in the nineties, with encouragement I thrust myself into untapped areas of education for a couple of years. This move helped advance the process of writing through short story and poetry as work permitted.

                                                              

The adaption of our parents love story became characterised through a twofold action.   Lou, my father, had expressed a desire to share his story in the eighties, following his daughters learning splurge. Another decade passed.  My brother recorded conversations with Lou., whose tale begins prior to meeting his wife. Eventually;   I found my mother to be; Evelyn’s voice inside their large bundle of correspondence. Subsequently our book became titled: ‘We would Meet at The Gate.’  Our parent’s writing’s clearly identify their values, given the times. 

 June, 1940 became a special memory for Evelyn and Lou. They meet at a dance in a local hall by chance. We travel with them differently in work and play times, their pages enliven the bones of  insightful letters and narrative combinations.

In the south of England we find Evelyn managing her parents business, both with retail management and associated clerical responsibility. On the other hand,  sporty Lou; purely in city retail.  He was well prepared soldierly from the outset, partly due from early initiation within the Home Guard Services. A volunteer system formed in 1940;   a practical grooming process; methods melded at various training camps. Lou often organised sport activities.  He and his brother Arthur joined up together in their early twenty’s in London.  My Father ‘briefly’ supported France in 1939.

July 1941 saw soldiers drafted to Singapore. Several months later they were taken prisoner, following train journeys and marching they arrived inside the Thai Jungle. Dramatic challenges ensued. Almost overnight lives changed drastically due to the absence of food, clothing and medicines. Despite the ever growing depravations and loss of life, gritty survivors  of various nationalities ultimately achieved a ‘positive outcome,’ by staying alive. They had managed to build the infamous railway and bridges by hand at great expense.

 Lou then became part of a small group of prisoners picked to travel onto Japan in 1944 to 1945. Lou utilised many opportunities to shine a light. Towards the final throes of his period in Japan, he came to share bath time with a family of five, largely due to his access of soap from the Red Cross parcels, coupled with his ability to care and communicate broadly.  Ultimately America came to the rescue! 

This section of our family history illustrates a fractured war time period of nearly five years of enforced separation, from within the contrasting countries of Asia and England! We sincerely hope these tales entertain, educate and possibly help to ameliorate over time. 

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To be published in Britain this year; 2026. Austin Macauley.