When the War Department heard that three of the four brothers had perished, they decided that the remaining brother needed to be brought home - just like in the film. It appeared he had no knowledge of his brothers’ fates. “Dad’s Spanish-American War stories are going to have to take a backseat when I get home,” he wrote. Her only consolation was a letter from Fritz bragging about the stories he would have after the war. Niland received all three notifications on the same day. Word of Bob and Preston’s deaths as well as Edward’s presumed death traveled fast and the government set out to notify the family. He was able to survive the storming of the beach and made it farther inland but was mortally wounded while attempting to capture the Crisbecq battery, which had sunk a U.S. The next day, Preston was killed after storming Utah Beach. Their plan managed to slow the Germans down, though Bob was ultimately killed while manning his machine gun. He died a hero, volunteering to stay behind with two other men and hold off the German advance while the rest of his team escaped. On D-Day, Bob Niland was killed in Normandy while storming the beaches with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. After he jumped out of his B-25, the rest of his team never heard from him again and assumed he had been killed in action. Though he managed to evade them for a while, he was captured by the Japanese and brought to a P.O.W.
He had parachuted into the jungles of Burma but had missed his mark. On May 16, 1944, less than a month shy of D-Day, Edward Niland was captured by the Japanese. Upon joining the military, brothers Fritz, Bob, Preston, and Edward Niland of Tonawanda, New York were spread out amongst various units with Fritz and Bob in the 501st and 505th Parachute Infantries, respectively, Preston in the 22nd Infantry, and Edward in the Air Force.
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