Dave
Saving Private Ryan was NOT historically accuate – except in the generic – ie. yes there was an Allied invasion of Normandy, yes lots of the invaders got themselves killed.
The storyline of the film is loosely based on two true stories … see:
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=1366
In his book, Band of Brothers, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992) Stephen E. Ambrose includes the history of a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, Fritz Niland, in France shortly after the invasion of Normandy. One day after learning that one of his brothers, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, had been killed on D-day, he learned that another brother had been killed on Utah Beach on D-Day. When Fritz returned to his own unit, he was informed that a third brother had been killed a week earlier in the China-Burma-India war zone. As the sole surviving son, Fritz Niland was sent home.
[my edit – he walked out, no Tiger tank, no brave rescue, etc., etc.] [PLUS]
On January 2, 1942, the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa—George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert—joined the Navy, with the hopes that they be allowed to serve together. A friend of theirs had been killed on the U.S.S. Arizona on December 7, 1941. They trained together at the Great Lakes Training Center, near Chicago, and were assigned to the cruiser, U.S.S. Juneau. Only a few months later, the Juneau was sunk by a Japanese submarine on November 13, 1942 during the Battle of the Solomons. Of the 676 men on board, only 11 survived; all five Sullivans were among the dead.
IMHO, Saving Private Ryan was/is about as historically accurate as Apocalypse Now ~ in much the same way ~ fictional (go get someone) storyline set in a reasonably accurate depiction of the battlefield.
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