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

DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994                   TAG: 9406070016
SECTION: THE GREAT CRUSADE                    PAGE: D-DAY8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HAD ALVIS CORRELL DONE AS HE WAS TRAINED, HE'D HAVE BEEN KILLED

THEY DROPPED THE ramp on the landing craft and the men in front of Alvis Correll of Roanoke ran off just like they had been trained to do, fanning out to the left and right.

They were chopped down by machine gun fire.

"I thought, 'My God, I'm not going to stand up and run out of this thing.'"

When it came Correll's turn, he got down low, putting water between his body and the German gunners.

Correll, 20, was the leader of a .30 calibre water-cooled machine gun squad and a member of Company D of the 29th Division's 116th Infantry Regiment.

Correll lost his rifle and the machine gun ammunition as he crawled onto the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach where Company A from Bedford had landed minutes earlier and had been all but wiped out. He stayed on his belly until he made his way to a sea wall at the base of the enemy-infested cliffs overlooking the beach.

"I knew we had to get in. It was get in or get killed, one of the two."

Only 11 men of the 30-man boat section made it. A bullet put a deep crease in Correll's steel helmet. The same bullet or another tore the first aid pack on his belt to shreds.

by CNB