He was the older brother of Hans-Thilo Schmidt, who sold secrets about the Enigma machine to the French.

He was promoted to General der Panzertruppe and appointed acting commander of the 2nd Army which took part in the Battle of Moscow.

On 25 December 1941 he was appointed Commander of the 2nd Panzer Army (replacing the sacked General Guderian).

[1] In January 1942 Rudolf Schmidt was promoted to Generaloberst, but on 10 April 1943 he was relieved of his command after the Gestapo arrested his brother for spying for the French, and found letters that Schmidt had written in which he was highly critical of Hitler’s conduct of the war and the Nazi Party.

He appeared before a court martial but was acquitted and transferred to the leadership reserve on 30 September 1943.