Casualty counts that would cause outrage today were more or less expected back then. Thousands of dead day after day for months on end. This devastated the marriage aged females of both countries. Untold tens of thousands were destined to be spinsters through no fault of their own.
A sad thing on top of all the other horrors of war.
As I understand it, the Brits didn’t allow deferments in WWI. This resulted in there best and brightest college students being killed. We may still be seeing the results.