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Port
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No. 7
Ap
ril
2012
April 2012
Trestle Board
St. John’s Lodge No. 1
Portsmouth, NH
The Master’s Message
Brethren,
Greetings from The East, Brethren!
We have been very busy over the last several weeks at St. Johns Lodge #1. Our
Game Night was held on the 29th of February and we had close to 30 brothers and
potential candidates in attendance. The competition was fierce, but the spirit of
brotherly love and friendship prevailed in the end. I look forward to making this
a quarterly event and hope to see you there.
In addition to our Stated Communication, we held a MM Degree in which our
brethren from William Whipple Lodge did the work of the Second Section in
Colonial Garb, no less. I believe everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening and I
hope that future Masters will consider inviting Whipple Lodge back to St. Johns
on an annual basis.
The month will conclude with an FC Degree to be held on March 28th.
Our activities do not slow down next month, either.
WBr. Nathan Page, our DEO will be presenting a program at our Stated. The
Rainbow Girls will providing dinner this evening and will conduct a small auc-
tion as a fundraiser for their great organization as well.
We will be holding an EA Degree at Wm. Pitt Tavern the on April 18th and
RWBr. David Spiller, our DDGL, will be holding his Inspection.
Perhaps most importantly, Brethren, our Annual Out of Hibernation 5K Road
Race will be held on April 14th. This is our Flagship fundraising event of 2012
and all proceeds from the race will be donated to The Seacoast Family Food Pan-
try (SFFP). The demands for the services provided by The SFFP has never been
higher. In fact, The SFFP is serving 62% more needy families than the same time
last year!
Our goal is to raise $10,000 this year but we need your help. If you visit the web-
site www.outofhibernation5k.com, you can download sponsorship forms and the
runners’ registration form. The vast majority of our donation comes in the form
of Sponsorship. If you know of any businesses that would consider sponsoring
our event, please contact them. They will have the name of their business printed
on our race shirts and, depending on the level of their sponsorship, can set up a
table, hang banners and distribute marketing material at the event – not to men-
tion the fact that they are supporting a great cause.
Continued on page 7………..
Gib Palmer
Worshipful Master
(603) 601-2294
Robert Sutherland Jr.
Secretary
(603) 436-1095
Contact
Information:
Scholarship Applications are now being accepted.
If you know a high school senior from Portsmouth or
any of the surrounding towns, have them submit an
application for one of our scholarships.
Deadline for submission is April 15th!
……….Continued from page 2
Of course, we also need your support at pre-registration on Friday, April 13 at the
Lodge from 5pm til 8 pm and race day from 7 AM til approximately 11:00 AM.
Please plan on meeting at The Lodge at this time if at all possible.
Brethren, I also encourage you to travel to other lodges in our district and beyond.
There are many exciting events taking place in the First Masonic District through-
out the year. The best place to find out what’s going on is http://
firstmasonicdistrictofnh.com. Check it out, call a brother (or two!) and make an
evening of it. I’m sure you’ll be glad you did.
Finally, as I enjoy a few unseasonably warm days, I am reminded of this excerpt
from Robert Frost’s poem, Two Tramps in Mudtime:
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
Fraternally Yours,
Wor Gib Palmer
At 4:00 am on June 11, Wise's men advanced through a thick morning mist towards
Belleau Wood, supported by the 23rd and 77th Companies of the 6th Machine Gun
Battalion, and were cut to pieces by heavy fire. Platoons were isolated and destroyed
by interlocked machine gun fire. It was discovered that the battalion had advanced in
the wrong direction. Rather than moving northeast, they had moved directly across
the wood's narrow waist. Even so, they smashed the German southern defensive lines.
Overall, the woods were attacked by the Marines a total of six times before they could
successfully expel the Germans. They fought off parts of five divisions of Germans,
often reduced to using only their bayonets or fists in hand-to-hand combat.
On June 26, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, under command of Major Shearer, made
an attack on Belleau Wood, which finally cleared the forest of the enemy. On that
day, Major Shearer submitted a report simply stating, "Woods now U.S. Marine Corps
entirely," ending one of the bloodiest and most ferocious battles U.S. forces would
fight in the war. U.S. forces suffered 9,777 casualties, included 1,811 killed.
The Battle of Belleau Wood was a major turning point in the war. Within a month of
the battle, the German army began to collapse, and by October 4, the Germans for-
mally asked the Allies for an armistice. On November 11, Germany signed the armi-
stice thus ending World War I.
The incredible valor displayed by the Americans and their French and British Allies as
they repelled the advancing Germans during this Battle of Belleau Wood is nothing
short of heroic. While none of these brave men fought for recognition, some were
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their heroism and numerous men were
decorated with other medals, including the Navy Cross.
The Navy Cross was instituted in part due to the entrance of the United States into
World War I and is awarded for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat
with an armed enemy force. One of the recipients of the Navy Cross for his bravery
during the Battle of Belleau Woods was Wray Farwell who, as you just read, led his
wounded regiment commander to safety across the field of battle on June 6. His cita-
tion reads:
The Navy Cross is presented to Wray G. Farwell, Commander (MC), U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism under fire on June 6, 1918, when his regimental commander was wounded by a sniper's bullet, in personally supervising his evacuation across a field exposed to fire of machine guns and snipers.
Dr. Wray Gilmor Farwell was a medical doctor in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps and a hero of World War I; but that’s not all. You probably have surmised that Brother Wray Farwell was a Freemason. He was Raised a Master Mason on June 5, 1905, and yes, he was a member of our St. John’s Lodge No. 1.
Alan Robinson
Historian
Stated Communication (Open in EA)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
(Dinner 6:00, Open 7:00)
Dinner—($8.00) - Lasagna
Note: Dinner will be prepared by and served by Rainbow Girls
This is a fundraiser for the Rainbow Girls.
Please come and help support the girls.
Officer dress—White tie and tails
Special Communication—Entered Apprentice Degree
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Dinner 6:00 at St. John’s Lodge
Degree will be at William Pitt Tavern at 7:00
Note: We will carpool from the Lodge to the Tavern
Dinner—($8.00) Macaroni and Cheese
Officer dress—White tie and tails
Out of Hibernation 5K Road Race
Friday, April 13th—Pre-registration
Volunteers needed 5:00PM to 8:00PM
Saturday, April 15, 2012
Race Starts 9:00
Volunteers needed from 7:30AM to Noon
Road Race!
Saturday, April
14th
9:00AM
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
April 2012
St. John’s Lodge Historical Sketch
The Battle of Belleau Wood
The Battle of Belleau Wood (June 1-26, 1918) occurred during the German 1918
Spring Offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France.
A few months prior to the battle, with nearly 50 divisions freed as a result of the Rus-
sian surrender on the Eastern Front, the German Army launched a series of attacks on
the Western Front, hoping to defeat the Allies before U.S. forces could be fully de-
ployed. In the north, the British 5th Army was virtually destroyed by two major Ger-
man offensives. A third offensive launched in May saw the Germans reach the north
bank of the Marne River at Château-Thierry, 40 miles from Paris. Two U.S. Army
divisions were dispatched into the Allied effort to stop the Germans. On May 31, the
U.S. Amy’s 3rd Division held the German advance at Château-Thierry and the enemy
turned right towards Belleau Wood.
The U.S. 2nd Division, including a brigade of U.S. Marines, was brought up along the
Paris-Metz highway. The 9th Infantry Regiment was placed between the highway and
the Marne River, while the 6th Marine Regiment was deployed to their left. On the
evening of June 1, German forces punched a hole in the French lines to the left of the
Marines' position. In response, the 23rd Infantry, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, and an
element of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion conducted a forced march over 6 miles to
plug the gap in the line, which they achieved by dawn. By the night of June 2, U.S.
forces held a 12 mile front line north of the Paris-Metz Highway running through grain
fields and scattered woods, with the German line opposite.
German commanders ordered their troops to advance through Belleau Wood. The com-
mander of the U.S. Marine Brigade, countermanding a French order to dig trenches
further to the rear, ordered the Marines to "hold where they stand." With bayonets, the
Marines dug shallow fighting positions. In the afternoon of June 3, German infantry
attacked the Marine positions through the grain fields with bayonets fixed. The Ma-
rines waited until the Germans were within 100 yards before opening rifle fire which
mowed down waves of German infantry and forced the survivors to retreat into the
wood.
Having suffered heavy casualties, the Germans dug in along a defensive line. After the
Marines were repeatedly urged to turn back by retreating French forces, Marine Captain
Lloyd Williams of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines uttered the now-famous retort
"Retreat? Hell, we just got here."
On June 4, and for the next two days, the Marines repelled continuous German assaults.
Before dawn on June 6, the Allies launched an attack on the German forces, who were
preparing their own strike. The French 167th Division attacked to the left of the Ameri-
can line, while the Marines attacked Hill 142 to prevent flanking fire against the
French. The Allies captured the ridge overlooking Belleau Wood; however, they failed
to adequately scout the woods. As a consequence, they missed a regiment of German
infantry dug in with a network of machine gun nests and artillery.
As the sun rose, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, with bayonets fixed, attacked Hill 142.
Advancing in waves across an open wheat field, they were met by German machine
gun and artillery fire. Many Marines were cut down. Captain Crowther commanding
the 67th Company was killed almost immediately. Captain Hamilton and the 49th
Company fought from wood to wood, fighting the entrenched Germans. At this point,
Hamilton had lost all five junior officers, while the 67th had only one commissioned
officer alive. Hamilton reorganized the two companies, establishing strong points and
a defensive line.
In the German counter-attack, Gunnery Sergeant Ernest Janson, repelled an advance
of 12 German soldiers, killing two with his bayonet before the others fled; for this
action he became the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor in World War I.
The rest of the battalion now arrived and went into action. Though rapidly exhausting
their ammunition, by the afternoon, the Marines had captured Hill 142, at a cost of
nine officers and most of the 325 men of the battalion.
At 5:00 pm on June 6, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5), and the 3rd Battalion, 6th
Marines (3/6), advanced from the west into Belleau Wood as part of the second phase
of the Allied offensive. Again, the Marines had to advance through a waist-high
wheat field into murderous machine gun fire. One of the most famous quotations in
Marine Corps legend came during the initial step-off for the battle when Gunnery
Sergeant Dan Daly, a recipient of two Medals of Honor, prompted his men of the 73rd
Machine Gun company forward with the words: "Come on, you sons of bitches, do
you want to live forever?"
The first waves of Marines, advancing in well-disciplined lines, were slaughtered;
their commander, Major Berry, was wounded in the forearm during the advance and
was lead to safety across the field by Wray Farwell of the U.S. Navy Medical Corps.
On their right, the Marines of the 3/6 Battalion swept into the southern end of Belleau
Wood and encountered heavy machine gun fire, sharpshooters and barbed wire. Ma-
rines and German infantrymen were soon engaged in heavy hand-to-hand fighting.
The casualties sustained on this day were the highest in Marine Corps history to that
time. Some 31 officers and 1,056 men of the Marine brigade were casualties. How-
ever, the Marines now had a foothold in Belleau Wood.
The battle was now deadlocked. At midnight on June 8, a German attack was stopped
cold and an American counter-attack in the early morning was similarly defeated.
Major Meyer's battalion, having sustained nearly 400 casualties, was relieved by the
1st Battalion, 6th Marines and Major Shearer took over the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines
for the wounded Berry. On June 9, an enormous American and French barrage devas-
tated Belleau Wood, turning the formerly attractive hunting preserve into a jungle of
shattered trees.
In the morning of June 10, the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, together with elements of
the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, attacked north into the wood. Although the attack
initially seemed to be succeeding, it was stopped by machine gun fire and the use of
great quantities of mustard gas. The commander of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion,
Major Cole, was mortally wounded. Captain Harlan Major, senior captain present
with the battalion, took command. Next, Wise's 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines was or-
dered to attack the woods from the west, while Hughes continued his advance from
the south.
