The Real Story That Inspired 'Saving Private Ryan'

Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning WWII epic Saving Private Ryan was released 19 years ago, with many still believing it to be the greatest was film of all time, although Dunkirk may give it a run for its money.

The film revolves around a team of US soldiers embarking on a hellish journey through France to find the sole surviving brother from one American family decimated by the war.

But what most people don’t know is, like Dunkirk, Saving Private Ryan was based on actual events of the second world war.

Frederick (Fritz), Robert (Bob), Preston and Edward Niland were four brothers from New York who all served in the second world war.

Edward Niland, the only brother who didn’t take part in the beach landings at Normandy, was reported MIA when his plane was gunned down over the jungle in Burma.

Bob was killed in action on D-Day during heavy gun fighting after parachuting into the French town of Neuville-au-Plain, while Preston died the following the day when leading a platoon on Utah Beach trying to defend the wounded. 

Fritz, the brother in which Matt Damon’s character ‘Pvt. James Francis Ryan’ is loosely based, thought to be the only surviving brother from the Niland family,was separated from his platoon behind enemy lines after the plane he was preparing to parachute from undertook enemy fire and he was forced to jump miles from his target.

He eventually found his own way back to safety, and after regrouping with Company H, he learned of his brother Edward’s plane being shot down in Asia.

While grieving for Edward, the company leader found Fritz and informed him that his brother Robert had also been killed in action and was buried in a French cemetery.

When searching the cemetery for Robert’s grave, Fritz discovered the grave of his third brother Preston, and came to the realisation that he was the sole remaining brother of four.

Upon hearing the news of the Niland brothers, the US military tried sending Fritz home from the frontline immediately , but like in the film, he refused, continuing to serve with his unit for a further two months before eventually being ordered home to serve out his time as an MP (Military Police).

Incredibly, Preston, presumed dead, was being held captive in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. 

He was released and returned home at war’s end in 1945 to join Fritz as the surviving Niland brothers from the devastation of WWII.