The movie by
Steven Spielberg was based,
loosely, on a true story.
A town in France, close to the beach, called Ste-Mere-Eglise, was being held by Colonel Vandervoort and his battalion. Soon, a column of Americans were seen leading prisoners up the road. They were waving the recognition flag, an orange flag used for identification. A frenchman road up to the Colonel on a bicycle and told the Colonel the Americans were near.
Vandervoort became suspicious when he saw 2 tracked vehicles at the rear of the column. The Colonel ordered machine-gun fire near the column on the right. The prisoners and the "Americans" took cover and returned fire. They were all German soldiers.
Vandervoort retreated, but one of his officers stayed behind with a company to slow the German advance. All were eventually captured, save the ones who died. A man, Sergeant Robert Niland, was killed while returning machine-gun fire. One of his brothers, a platoon commander in the 4th Division, was killed that morning at Utah beach. Another brother was killed that week in Burma. Their mother recieved the telegrams on the same day. Her fourth son, Fritz, was part of the 101st Airborne division and was sent home shortly after.