Eddie later returned home from a Japanese prison camp. Mother Niland did not receive all the telegrams the same day, like in the movie, though she did receive them all within a week's time.During World War II, the Niland family of Tonawanda, NY, had four brothers in active military service-in all combat zones. When the oldest brother, Edward, was shot down in a B-25 over Burma, he was listed Missing In Action, presumed dead. On D-Day, another Niland brother, Robert, a paratrooper in Co. D/505th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division, was killed in a battle at Neuville au Plain, north of Saint Mere Eglise. On 7 June (D+1), yet another brother, Lt. Preston Niland, was killed while fighting northwest of Utah Beach with the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Division. The youngest brother, Frederick "Fritz" Niland, had jumped (typically misdropped) with H/501st, landing near Raffoville, southwest of Carentan. It took Fritz almost a week to fight his way back to his regiment, adn he returned on his own, in time to assault Hill 30 near La Billonnerie with 3.501st on 12 June 1944. Fritz visited the 501st Catholic chaplain, Father Francis L. Sampson, in mid-June. Fritz informed the priest that Robert Niland, his paratrooper brother, had been killed and was buried near Saint Mere Eglise. After visiting the two cemeteries at Saint Mere Eglise, themen discovered that both Rovert and Preston Niland had been killed. When Father Sampson later learned that a third brother in the CBI was presumed dead, he began paperwork, through channels, to have Fritz returned to safer duties in the States. Fritz's cousin, Tom, was an officer in 2/327th GIR, and visited Fritz in Normandy around D+10.
Okay, that's it in a nutshell. Hope it helps someone