Russia and Ukraine

[The Grand Nudger]

Same thing happened to the japanese air force in the pacific. Horrendous casualties from their very successful assualts..in the end, led to a drain of experienced pilots that a tactically superior maneuver drill could exploit despite inferior airframes and the relative inexperience of their operators.

I'd say that russia is having a similar problem (and more problems, even). I can lay out a scene that explains why officers are dying doing what we would call ncos jobs.

Lead abrams reports contact front right. At ambush, fortified position, 200 meters. Track out. The other abrmas pop smoke and nose in to contact around the disabled vehicle. IFVs rush forward under smoke to cover the first 100m in a dash. Dismount. That's two teams of infantry, 3 men each, sometimes 4. Each time headed by an nco. Sometimes a fresh nco in training (e4corporal as opposed to specialist)- but rarely. The heavy weapons team sets up on the spot - the ifv backs off covering with fire. At least two ncos still in that ifv. Command and guns.

Out of a minimum nine man squad, at least four are ncos. The remaining five underneath them are unlikely to be e1 /2 exclusively, also. At least two ncos are out of any armor cover - one of them is in a stationary position and the other is actively trying to cross 100m under fire to flank the position. So, if we were failing like the russians are failing in the environment that they're failing in, we'd probably see similar rates - but in junior and mid level ncos. Ukrainians have reported that the mech infantry aren't dismounting...but if they've lost their nco equivalents, why would (and how could) they?