Otto Ruge

Otto Ruge (1930s)

Otto Ruge (born January 9, 1882 in Kristiania ; † August 15, 1961 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian Lieutenant General of the Army (Den Norske Hær) , who was in 1940 and again in 1945 Commander in Chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces (Forsvarssjef) and the most important Norwegian general in the first half of the 20th century . He had a major influence on defense reform in the interwar period and early on showed the need to defend the country. His radical view of defense policy made him a highly controversial figure in conservative military and defense policy circles of the 1930s. As the commanding general, after the attack by the German Wehrmacht on Norway on April 9, 1940 , he was responsible for the command of the Norwegian armed forces from April 11, 1940. His decisions during the Weser Exercise operation were a prerequisite for Norway's later deployment on the side of the Allies in World War II .

Life

Training and uses as an officer

Ruge was a son of Chamberlain Carl Christian Conrad Ruge and his wife Hilda Ellen af ​​Sillén. His younger brother was the philologist and literary scholar Herman Ruge . He was also a grandson of the priest and writer Hermann Ruge . He grew up in Kristiania and attended the Katedralskole there , but graduated from a private tutor in 1899. He then began his officer training at the War School ( Krigsskolen ) , which he completed in 1902 with the exam. In the following years he found employment in units of the army (Den Norske Hær) and graduated from the military college (Den militære høyskole) in 1905 and was then an aspirant in the general staff in 1906. He was then, among other things, company commander in the 1st  Akershus Brigade and chief of a battalion in the Rogaland Infantry Regiment. After completing the course for general staff officers in 1915 , he was chief of the infantry troop and platoon leader courses of the 1st division from 1916 to 1917. He then acted as chief of staff of the 1st and 3rd Brigade, where he dealt in particular with operational matters. In 1920 he was temporarily deployed in Sweden and after his return in 1920 he was a member of the Defense Commission (Forsvarskommisjonen) and between 1922 and 1930 he was an instructor at the Infantry Shooting School (Infanteriets skyteskole) , with missions abroad again between 1923 and 1924 in Belgium and 1927 in Sweden. He also worked between 1927 and 1933 on the reform of the defense order. At the same time he was a teacher of strategy and military history at the military college from 1929 to 1933 and head of a department in the general staff between 1930 and 1933.

Rise to Chief of Staff and Ruge's military and defense doctrine of the 1930s

Lieutenant General Ruge as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces (1940)

After his promotion to colonel , Ruge became chief of the general staff in 1933 and held this post until 1938.

As Chief of Staff, he headed the Working Committee of the Defense Council (Forsvarsrådets arbeidsutvalg) , in which he presented the central national defense tasks to the government. In it he specified and concretized the military plans he had begun in the 1920s and 1930s, which also included an economic and foreign policy analysis of Norway. After the First World War , there was a move away from the possible danger of war with neighboring Scandinavian countries. According to his analysis, the Soviet , British and German strategic and economic interests represented the greatest challenges for Norway's security. As early as World War I it became clear at times what vital importance the coasts of Norway had for the three great powers in terms of marine strategy and trade. The acquisition of a naval base could thus secure the interests of one great power and weaken those of the other. With this in mind, Ruge believed that a war between the great powers would have immediate consequences for Norway's political fate. There was broad political and military agreement that armed neutrality was the primary armed mission and that this would reduce the dangers to the country under a European war. First and foremost, in his opinion, the navy and air forces had to be expanded. However, there were differences of opinion as to how strong the protection of neutrality should be, how it should be organized and what its task would be. A central point of the neutrality policy was the fundamental differences between the political and military authorities. The military leadership insisted that a violation of neutrality could be the start of an attack if a major power tried to secure a naval base. As a result, the military saw the need to be prepared for limited military action in vulnerable areas in the southwestern part of Norway, the Ofoten and eastern Finnmark . This scenario was rejected in political circles, and so the defense stood before the Second World War without political acceptance that neutrality needs protection from a regular war.

Ruge's views on the defense order reflected this understanding of security policy. As early as the 1920s he recognized that it was neither political nor economic to adapt the existing defense system to actual needs. In addition, he believed that the Norwegian militia army was organized on the basis of outdated principles and that the army should be dramatically reduced in size. The funds released as a result should instead be used for organizational and technological modernization in order to increase the level of readiness in the event of war, as well as for strengthening the navy and air force. In his view, his security policy had two advantages for defense planning: firstly, Norway could react more quickly in the event of a conflict between the great powers and enable the defense to quickly mobilize a credible neutrality that could have a deterrent effect. Second, the defense would be able to create mobile and modern combat units that can be used in a limited, direct attack. The defense order of 1933 took this into account, but could not be fully implemented due to the financial possibilities.

During his tenure as chief of staff, he was also instrumental in the air defense report (Luftforsvarsutredningen no. 38/1937) , which was submitted to the Storting in 1937 . It was the first time the creation of independent air forces as an equal part of the armed forces alongside the army and navy. After completing his position as Chief of the General Staff, he served between 1938 and 1940 as General Inspector of the Infantry Forces (Generalinspektør for infanteriet) .

Commander in chief in World War II, prisoner of war and post-war period

Defense Minister Jens Christian Hauge was Ruge's political rival in the reorganization of the Norwegian armed forces after the end of World War II in 1945

The attack by the German armed forces on Norway on April 9, 1940 ushered in the greatest crisis since the end of the union of Denmark-Norway in 1814. After the resignation of the longstanding commanding general, Lieutenant General Kristian Laake , demanded by the government , Ruge succeeded him on April 11, 1940. In 1940 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olav . As the commanding general and on May 18, 1940, the resulting Commander-in-Chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces (Forsvarssjef) , he tried to implement the defense planning he had developed in the interwar period. Numerous officers in the military command intended an early surrender to the German Wehrmacht , while he saw the maintenance of further defense as a political and military goal in order to enable the Norwegian government to go into exile in London , but also for national self-respect and enable Allied aid to be received. Despite German superiority, the military resistance was maintained for 62 days, even though King Haakon VII and the government were in exile for almost five years . He himself was taken prisoner by Germany on June 9, 1940 , initially in the Königstein Fortress in Saxony , later in Poland and finally in the main camp III A in Luckenwalde . There he was liberated by the Red Army on April 22, 1945 .

After his return to Norway, Ruge formally took over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces from Crown Prince Olav on July 16, 1945 . Immediately thereafter, he began planning the reconstruction of the armed forces, which in his opinion could be achieved by quickly establishing an emergency response based on three months of military service and a 45-day refresher course for the troops of the resistance organizations deployed in the war, and one by 1949 would have produced a sufficiently large personnel reserve.

However, this met with resistance from Jens Christian Hauge from the Arbeiderpartiet , who had taken over the post of Defense Minister in the second Gerhardsen government on November 5, 1945 , as the successor to Oscar Torp . Hauge did not want to use the units of the resistance movement for regular military service (Førstegangstjeneste) , but to transfer them to the Heimwehr ( Heimevernet ) , which would have taken longer to build up the armed forces. Instead, Hauge needed the well-trained soldiers to build up the brigade (Tysklandsbrigaden) intended for use in the now occupied Germany , which would not have been possible with the implementation of Ruge's plans. Hauge finally won acceptance for his plans, whereupon Ruge resigned on December 31, 1945 and was replaced on January 1, 1946 by the Commander of the Navy, Rear Admiral Elias Corneliussen .

Because of his services, the Ruge government granted Høytorp fortress near Mysen in Eidsberg as an honorary residence for him. There he withdrew from public life and wrote, among other things, his three-volume work Annen verdenskrig i tekst og billeder. Krigens dagbok (1946).

He was married to Ingeborg Sommerfelt from 1906 until his death in 1961.

Publications

• Annen verdenskrig i tekst og billeder. Krigens dagbok , 3 volumes, 1946
• Felttoget. General Otto Ruges invader from Kampene April – June 1940 , posthumously 1989

Web links

• Entry in the Norsk biografisk leksikon
• Entry in store norske leksikon