Russ Niller
Ballplayers Wounded in Combat
| Date and Place of Birth: | October 24, 1921 Baltimore, MD |
| Date and Place of Death: | September 6, 2002 Ocean City, MD |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | Pitcher |
| Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
| Military Unit: | 568th Bomb Squadron, 390th Bomb Group USAAF |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
Russell D. Niller, Jr., was born on October 24, 1921, in Baltimore,
Maryland, and raised near Lake Montebello in the city. Captain of the
baseball team, he graduated from McDonogh High School in Baltimore in
1939, and attended the University of Virginia for one year before
signing a professional contract with the Baltimore Orioles of the Class
AA International League in 1942.
Niller, together with Gordie Mueller and Ray Flanigan, was a
much-talked-about rookie during spring training at Haines City, Florida,
in 1942, and headed north with the team for the regular season in April.
The season was a disappointment for Oriole fans - they finished seventh
with a 58-94 record. Ken Trinkle, with an 11-15 record was the
winningest pitcher on the staff, with Ray Flanigan contributing four
wins against 10 losses and Gordie Mueller going 0-1 in four appearances.
Niller made 20 appearances and was 4-5 with a 5.26 ERA. The pitching
staff also included 35-year-old Montie Weaver, who had won 22 games with
the Washington Senators in 1932, and Earl Springer, a left-handed
pitcher who would lose his life in combat in Germany on January 25,
1945.
Baltimore became a Cleveland Indians farm team in 1942, and Niller got
off to a strong start. On April 19, he allowed just three hits in a 13-0
win over the Newark Bears. Then, on April 25, he pitched a 1-0
five-hitter against the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning the game with a
ninth inning home run from his catcher Joe Becker. Sadly, as the Orioles
began to slide down the league standings (they finished fifth with a
75-77 record), so did Niller’s performance. Nevertheless, he made 31
appearances, 22 of those in relief, and was 3-2 with a 5.47 ERA. Trinkle
again led the staff with 14 wins, Flanigan was 11-15, Mueller was
playing with Lancaster of the Inter-state League, and future Hall of
Famer, Bob Lemon, was playing third base for the Orioles.
On June 10, 1942, Niller pitched what was perhaps his most memorable
game - a pitching duel against future Hall of Famer Bob Feller, who was
now in military service. Before a crowd of 10,000 at Oriole Park, Niller
defeated the Norfolk Naval Training Station team, 3-2, on six hits,
out-pitching Feller and Freddie Hutchinson, who relieved Feller in the
sixth.
Niller’s baseball career was put on hold when he entered military
service with the Army Air Force on October 26, 1942. As an aviation
cadet he was assigned to Kirtland Army Air Field near Albuquerque, New
Mexico, where he trained as a bombardier. Being a bombardier was a
complex job. He needed not only math skills that approached those of the
navigator in addition to an understanding of complex laws of physics,
but also motor skills more delicate than those required of the pilot.
Niller also needed to master the laws of falling bodies, and concepts of
air resistance and air movement.
Niller graduated as a bombardier on May 20, 1944, and was assigned to
Rapid City Army Air Base in South Dakota, for final training before
being assigned to an active Bomb Group. He played baseball while at
Rapid City, guiding the air base team to the 1944 South Dakota amateur
baseball championship. Niller was named to the All-State team chosen by
tournament officials.
Assigned to the 568th Bomb Squadron, 390th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air
Force, Second Lieutenant Niller was stationed at Framlingham in England,
flying as a bombardier on Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses over
enemy-occupied Europe.
On March 18, 1945, Niller’s Flying Fortress was hit by flak after having
deposited its bomb load on Berlin. The pilot, First Lieutenant Richard
Berryman, who was also from Baltimore, broke formation and was heading
for Russia at low altitude when attacked by German fighter planes.
Niller and five other crew members bailed out over Poland just before
the bomber broke in two. 1st/Lt. Berryman, tail gunner Sergeant Norman
Dahlin, and waist gunner Sergeant Michael Riley all went down with the
plane.
Niller, who was wounded during the attack, suffered a bad shoulder
injury on landing, but there was more to come when Russian soldiers
mistook him for a German spy. "He was physically beaten, and only after
he showed them an American flag he had in his boot did they turn him
over to the Red Cross," recalled his son, Russell D. Niller III. After
eight days, Niller and his comrades were returned to American forces.
Niller was back in the United States in late 1945. He hoped to pick-up
where he left off in baseball three years earlier but the shoulder
injury he suffered was hampering his throwing. Although it was announced
that Orioles’ manager Tommy Thomas had received a signed contract from
Niller in January 1946, irreparable damage to ligaments and cartilage
meant he was unable to pitch with any effect. Instead he worked for the
Maryland Hotel Supply Company in Baltimore, a company founded by his
father in 1927, supplying meat and poultry to local hotels. After his
father's death in 1949, Niller became president of the business, and
chairman in 1992.
Russ Niller suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Ocean City,
Maryland, on September 6, 2002, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was 80 years
old.
Date Added December 24, 2017
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