Friedrich Ruge

Friedrich Oskar Ruge (24 December 1894 – 3 July 1985) was an officer in the German Navy and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Life
Friedrich Ruge was the son and grandson of German educators. Joining the Imperial German Navy as a cadet in March 1914, he was soon a participant in the 1914, 1915, and 1916 Baltic Sea operations. In 1917 and 1918, he sailed with the destroyer raids in the North Sea and English Channel.

After the armistice, Ruge was an officer aboard the German destroyer B-112, interned at Scapa Flow and in June 1919, he played a role in the scuttling of the German Fleet.

Returning to Germany to continue his naval career in the service of the new Weimar Republic, for the next two decades he concentrated on mines and mine warfare. From 1921 to 1923, he commanded a minesweeper. After studies at Berlin Institute of Technology, he was the senior officer of a flotilla of minesweepers, and, in 1937, achieved the top post in that division.

In World War II, he was a part of the Polish Campaign in 1939 and the North Sea-English Channel operations during 1940. From 1940 to 1943, he was stationed in France, rising through the upper ranks to become Vice Admiral in 1943. Sent to Italy in 1943, he served as Senior German Naval Officer until mid-summer. He was appointed as Naval Advisor to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in November 1943. In August 1944, he became the Kriegsmarine's Director of Ship Construction, a position in which he served till the end of World War II.

At the end World War II, he became a POW. In 1946, he started a new life as a translator, writer and educator in Cuxhaven. He was one of four Flag Officers who made up the Naval Historical Team at Bremerhaven, sponsored by the United States Navy.

He entered politics as a political independent to the Cuxhaven Town Council.

During the early 1950s, he advised as to how the navy could be restructured in the new Bundesmarine, as detailed in Searle's Wehrmacht Generals. Called out of retirement when Germany became a part of NATO, Ruge was appointed Inspector of the Bundesmarine (a position similar to the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations), a post he occupied until 1961.

Afterward, he became a member of the faculty at the University of Tübingen, eventually becoming an Associate Professor on 21 July 1967 there. He was a guest lecturer at many universities, including the U.S. Naval War College at Newport.

Admiral Ruge was one of the umpires for the 1974 Sandhurst wargame on Operation Sea Lion.

He died in 1985.

Literary works
Ruge was the author of several books, including The Soviets as Naval Opponents, 1941-1945, written for Annapolis Naval Institute in 1979, and Rommel in Normandy, written in 1984.

Quoted at Normandy: Utilization of the Anglo-American air forces is the modern type of warfare, turning the flank not from the side but from above.

In the movie "The Longest Day" (1962), he played himself, and was a consultant to the film.

Decorations

 * Iron Cross (1914)
 * 2nd Class (26 August 1917)
 * 1st Class (2 March 1918)
 * Cross of Honor
 * Long Service Award 2nd to 4th class (2 October 1936)
 * German Olympic Games Decoration 2nd class (21 December 1936)
 * Sudetenland Medal
 * Clasp to the Iron Cross
 * 2nd Class (17 September 1939)
 * 1st Class (2 October 1939)
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 21 October 1940 as Kapitän zur See and commodore leader of the Minensuchboote West
 * Minesweeper War Badge (15 February 1940)
 * Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht on 16 February 1942
 * Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
 * Legion of Merit, Commanders Cross (1961)
 * Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (28 September 1961)