Quote:
Originally Posted by Dowly
Would be interesting to know the NCO casualty figures for Continuation War. I believe about 3,500 NCOs died during the Winter War.
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Here's some numbers from "Jatkosodan pikkujättiläinen":
Combat deaths during the whole of Continuation War:
Officers 6,2 % of the total
NCO's 18 % "
The grunts 75,7 %
Here's some numbers from the battle of Vuosalmi in July 1944 for the Jääkäriprikaati (JaegerBrigade of the Finnish Armoured Division). The numbers are from Lauri Jäntti's book "Kannaksen suurtaisteluissa kesällä 1944". Jäntti served in the Finnish Armoured Division.
At the beginning of the battle the brigade had a combat strength of 144 officers +479 NCO's +2712 men = 3335 altogether
- about 25 officers and 100 NCO's per battalion
The losses after the first day of battle at Vuosalmi (the unit counterattacked the attacking Red Army) were 25 officers, 64 NCO's and 309 men. After four days of battle the unit had on third of its strength left, 1093 combatants. Jääkäriprikaati was always thrown into the worst places, and it was 1944, not 1941, but maybe the numbers are still indicative.
According to "Taktikens utveckling i sovjetarmén under det Stora Fosterländska Kriget 1941 - 1945" (edited by Lieutenant General K.S. Kolganov from the Red Army) the Red Army of 1941 had its leaders leading by example which led to big losses among the officers and NCO's. By the winter of 1941 the opposite was the truth, the leaders were giving orders to the men and then following if any advance was made. This led to communication breakdowns, which was fixed by an order in the autumn of 1942, where it stated that leaders should stay in a place where there would a good balance of being able to observe the battlefield, and lead.
The lesson of all this: to maximise the chance of survival one should be a grunt in the beginning of a war, and at end of it an officer
