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| Lt. Donald Primeau was the co-pilot on the B-17 V Packette. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139424144/donald-primeau World War 2 In Review No. 23: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress |
Donald Primeau never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Donald was born on February 6, 1920 in Massachusetts. His parents Daniel and May were born in Canada and Massachusetts, respectively. His father worked as a street railway operator and later as a bus driver. Donald had one younger sister. By 1940 Donald had completed four years of high school and was still living at home. He played semi-pro baseball and worked for the Lowell Sun newspaper.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in March 1942. He was trained to fly bombers and reached the rank of second lieutenant in the 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, which was equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses. The 91st BG arrived in England in September 1942. Perhaps because it got there so soon, the 91st BG lost more men than any other American bomb group in the war.
Lt. Primeau arrived in England in June 1943. On August 17, 1943, Lt. Primeau was the co-pilot on the B-17 #42-5225 which went by the name V Packette. The target that day was Schweinfurt. V Packette was shot down by enemy fighters and crashed six miles west of Leopoldsburg, Belgium. Two of the crew survived as POWs but Lt. Primeau and seven others were killed. Ten other B-17's were also lost on this mission.
His grave is at Saint Patrick Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Last year on this date I profiled Okinawa fallen Francis Green, USS Curtiss. You can read about Francis here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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