| Summary: | This fifth book is an entirely different kind of diary than the first four volumes. In those first four diaries, Howard Leopold Morry told us his life history for the first time. The fifth diary is more of a traditional daily diary, with day by day observations on current events, the weather, the fishery, births, marriages and deaths, and normal and unusual occurrences. But it also includes some reminiscences of his earlier life. And, in view of the timing of this diary, which nominally is the diary for 1940, but in reality contains some entries from late 1939 until early 1945, needless to say much of the information conveyed pertains to the progress of WWII from the perspective of a Newfoundlander with two sons overseas, one in the Royal Navy and the other in the Royal Artillery. It goes without saying, therefore, that these accounts are not given from an unbiased perspective. The reader must be aware of the fact that, even though the first part of the diary was initially intended to convey primarily observations on the events of 1940, for reasons he himself explains, there are only entries for that year from January to April, not resuming again until part way through December, with the exception of two or three entries in the month of May. All other entries cover a smattering of days’ records from late 1939 and from January 1945, but focus primarily on the years 1941 to 1944. Unfortunately, not every entry is carefully noted as to which year it was written, though most are. And also there are a few instances in which the entries for a given day have been accidentally entered on the page for a different date, as evidenced by the telling of historical events which were specific to a certain date different from the one where that entry is recorded. In view of these areas of possible confusion, and in order to provide readers not familiar with the “cast of characters” mentioned in the pages of the diary a clue to their identity, an extensive set of endnotes has been provided as an assistance in reading and fully ...
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