Richard

Richard Ruoff, born 18-08-1883 in Messbach, Württemberg, joined the Army Service in 1903 age 19, as a Fahnenjunker in the 10^th Württembergische Infantry Regiment Nr 180, in Tübingen. Promoted to Battalion Adjutant in 1910, Oberleutnant in 1912 and in 1913 to Regiment’s Adjutant. With the outbreak of the first World War he as a Hauptmann was a Company Chief. At the end of the war he was a General Staff Officer and commander of the III Battalion of his old Regiment. Ruoff was allowed in the new Reichswehr in the Staff of the 5^th Division  , in Stuttgart.   He climbed up to the rank of Major General in 1936 and became a Lieutenant General in 1938 and the Chief of the General Staff of the 5^th Army Corps, in Vienna. On 01-05-1939 before the outbreak of World War II he was appointed as Commanding General of the VI Army Corps, as a General der Infanterie. With this corps Ruoff was involved on the Western front, captured the River Maas bridge and penetrated up to the Aisne area in the south of Belgium.   Transferred to the Eastern Front and attacked over Suwalki, with the Army Corps Central, under General Fedor von Bock (see Bock) to the highway of Moscow. On 30-06-1941 he was awarded with the Knight Cross of the Iron Cross and on 08-01-1942 appointed as Highest Commander of the 4^th Panzer Army he succeeded General Erich Hoepner                Hoepner involved in the 20 July bomb attack was hanged in Plötzensee, age 57, on 08-08-1944. His son leutnant Gerhard was killed in action, age 20, on 18-09-1941, in Russia. He lost his command to Hermann Hoth (see Hoth) and again promoted, now to Generaloberst, he took the command of the 17^th Army Corps and led this Corps into the region of the Don bridgehead in the Caucasus. In June 1943 Ruoff age 60, landed in the infamous Führer Reserve and didn’t get a command anymore. After the war he lived near the Bodensee and died at the old age of 83, on 30-03-1967, in Tübingen. Ruoff is buried with his wife Marta, who died old age 95, on 10-04-1984, on the Bergfriedhof of Tübingen. Close by the graves of General Walter Assmann (see Assmann) and General Hans Kessel (see Kessel).