The number of people who actually died in WW1 is blown way out of proportion. People often refer to it as the war that killed an entire generation but in reality, for example, British losses were only about 10% if memory serves. The majority of men returned to their homes and families. This is not to say that a significant number of men died in the trenches. It was usually from disease that most men died. The Germans were strictly on the defensive in the West and dug into positions that were nearly impossible to dislodge. Attacks would sometimes begin with a week long artillery barrage before they charged the lines. If you want to look more into this topic I would suggest looking at a book by Tim Travers called "The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918" This was the first war with armies of this size and the sheer size of the armies and number of deaths and casualties eclipses anything in the past. It really is an interesting topic.