First Battle of the Marne

The first German offensive on the Western Front is finally halted.

Schlieffen Plan was executed more or less right... but it didn't help the Central Powers, as the plan itself was bad. While initial German offensive managed to defeat the forces of the French Republic near the borders (their war plan was even worse than German one - frontal offensive and attempt on the liberation of Alsace and Lorraine was a suicide at this point), later on, things get ugly.   The Germans made several major mistakes. The decisive one was underestimating the Russian speed of mobilization. While the offensive turned out to be led in a rather incompetent way (leading to a major defeat for the Russians during the Battle for Tannenberg), its initial speed made the German Empire redirect some force from the western front.   In the end, the reinforcements didn't reach Prussia before the Russians were defeated... and were still absent from the western front, where they were REALLY needed. What's more, soldiers that actually fought in the West were at this point exhausted and could barely muster any combat strength.   German Empire forces were defeated in the battle and forced to retreat at least for a bit. Their offensive towards Paris was halted, and the Western Front was stabilized, at least for now.