The Alamo
On February 23, 1836 the armed forces of General Antonio López de Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo, an old Spanish mission in San Antonio that had been captured during the Texas Revolution in December of 1835.
The Alamo's defenders, including Colonel William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davie Crockett, managed to hold out against the superior Mexican forces until March 6, 1836, when the Alamo was overrun and its defenders killed.
While preparing to defend Ramelle against an expected German attack on June 13, 1944, Captain Miller designated a building as the "Alamo," a point of last defense from which the last surviving man would trigger the destruction of the bridge that crossed the Merderet River. Although Ranger and paratrooper forces were forced to fall back to the "Alamo" once the German assault began, the arrival of Allied reinforcements negated the need to destroy the bridge.
Few who watch Saving Private Ryan realize that the sets for Neuville and Ramelle are actually one large set split by the "Merderet River," a shallow man-made canal. The Neuville scenes were shot on the opposite side of the set from the Ramelle scenes, and carefully planned so that the bridge and river are never seen. The bombed-out "Alamo" building is actually on the Neuville side of the set.
