Marion I did a lenghty post on WBG and though what better place to share it Hope you enjoy
Niland, Frederick "Fritz"
Rank: Sergeant
Unit: 101st Airborne Division, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Company H
Parents: Michael and Augusta
Brothers: 3 - Robert, Preston and Edward
Home Town: Tonawanda, New York
Saving Sergeant Niland? Although the story for the search for Private Ryan is fictional, there was a real paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division whose family (appeared to have) suffered the loss of three out of four sons in combat in a short period of time.
Sergeant Frederick "Fritz" Niland was a member of the 101st Airborne's 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, and was one of those that made the drop into Normandy on June 5/6, 1944. Niland's three brothers served in other units, Technical Sergeant Robert Niland with the 82nd Airborne Division (505th Parachute Infantry Regiment), Lieutenant Preston Niland with the 4th Infantry Division (22nd Infantry Regiment), and Technical Sergeant Edward Niland as a pilot in the Army Air Force. Much like the fictional Ryan, two of Niland's brothers, Robert and Preston, were killed on or after D-Day, and the third, Edward, was reported missing over Burma in the Pacific Theater on May 16, 1944.
Unlike Ryan, however, there was no need to send out a rescue mission to find Sergeant Niland, who was eventually contacted at his unit by a priest, Father Francis L. Sampson, who began the paperwork necessary to send Niland home. Niland remained with his unit for some time, but once the paperwork cleared he was forced to return to the States, where he served as an MP for the rest of the war. Fortunately for the Niland family, Edward Niland had not been killed, but had spent almost an entire year in a Japanese prisoner of war camp before being rescued by British forces.
The two deceased Niland brothers were buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer, France. Robert is buried in Plot F, Row 15, Grave 11, and Preston is buried in Plot F, Row 15, Grave 12.
Attempts to point out the "discrepancies" between the stories of Fritz Niland and James Ryan are often misguided, as Ryan is only based on Niland, and is not meant to be (or claimed to be) a completely accurate representation of him. The differences in the two stories seem to stem in part from the fact that the true story of Sergeant Niland and his brothers is often reported inaccurately. The character of Private James Ryan is a mixture of fact and fiction, with some of the fictional elements coming from the erroneous stories about the Niland brothers.
Links
"Saving Private Ryan" A Real Life Drama (University at Buffalo Reporter)
Saving Private Ryan: Remembering our World War II Soldiers
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