
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994                   TAG: 9406070005
SECTION: THE GREAT CRUSADE                    PAGE: D-DAY7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

'I ALWAYS WANTED TO GET INTO THE ACTION, SO I ALWAYS GO ON THE GUN,' FRED

T HE GERMANS WERE still shelling Utah Beach when Fred Atalla of Roanoke landed around noon with the 87 other men of Battery D of the 82nd Airborne Division's 80th Anti-Aircraft Artillerly Batallion.

"There was a lot of destroyed equipment, a lot of injured people. As soon as we hit the beach, we were on the run."

Nobody from Atalla's group was hurt on the beach. But it wasn't long before his battery of .50 caliber machine guns was in the battle.

"We could stop them right in their tracks once we opened up fire. I always wanted to get into the action, so I always go on the gun," said Atalla, who as a platoon leader could have left that job to someone else.

The barrels on the machine guns got so hot that they had to be changed periodically to keep them from warping. The crew carried asbestos mittens for that purpose.

by CNB