WWII · Battle Death Record
Preston Niland
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army · New York
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Preston Niland
- Entered the Service From
- New York
- Rank
- Second Lieutenant
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Unit / Regiment
- Company C, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division
- War
- WWII
- Date of Death
- July 6, 1944
- Awards
- Purple Heart, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal
- Burial / Memorial
- Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, France
- Grave
- Plot F, Row 15, Grave 12
Their story
Second Lieutenant Preston T. Niland was a platoon leader with Company C, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, who landed in Normandy and was killed in action during the fighting near the German Crisbecq coastal battery north of Utah Beach in early June 1944. One of the four Niland brothers whose story helped inspire Saving Private Ryan, he is buried beside his brother Robert at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.