In the first of a two-part feature, Lee Cook uses personal accounts to tell the story of US Navy pilot Harry ‘Dirty Eddie’ March – and the hardships of his combat during the early days of the Pacific war
Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats of VF-3 in flight near Naval Air Station Kaneohe, Hawaii, on April 10, 1942. They are BuNo 3976/F-1 of VF-3 CO LCDR John S Thach, and 3986/F-13, flown by Lt Edward H O’Hare. Both aircraft were lost while assigned to VF-2 with USS ‘Lexington’ during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Harry March started his frontline flying in the Wildcat.
PHOTOS NATIONAL ARCHIVES. MARCH FAMILY • NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NAVAL AVIATION • JAMES A HALFORD COLLECTION
Before 1942, the name Guadalcanal carried little, if any, significance; it was nothing but one of the many islands forming the South Pacific’s Solomon archipelago. After 1942 however, it was sealed in history as the place the Allies launched their first prominent assault of the Pacific war.
