Evening star., 1944-11-26
Germans Report
7-MiIe Setback
East of Auchen
By the Associated Press.

QUARTERS, PARIS, Nov. 25.-
The American 1st Army, pushing
steadily toward the Cologne
Plain against furious and undi-
minished German opposition, to-
night reached the edge of Hurt
gen Forest and came under
heavier robot bomb fire from the
Nazi defenders of the Ruhr.
The Yanks fought within few
hundred yards of Groshau and
1000 yards of Kleinhau in the
Hurtgen area and brought the town
of Hurtgen under artillery fire, but
still had not smashed their way
completely out of the forest, reports
to Supreme Allied Headquarters
said.
Heavy Battle Near Koslor.
On the 1st Armys left flank to
the north, American 9th Army units
were engaged in heavy fighting out
side Koslar just west of the Roer
River, the last big natural barrier
before the Rhine
CA broadcast by the German
news agency DNB's chief mill
tary commentator said Allied
troops had scored 7-mile ad-
vance east of Aachen. If true,
this would place the Americans
on the east side of the Roer.
There was no Allied confirma-
ton. however.
The commentator claimed the
gain was made at heavy cost to
the Allies-30,O00 dead and as
much material destroyed as was
lost by the British at Caen in
the early stages of the Normandy
invasion There was no Allied
confirmation r.
Bourheim Overrun.
In this heavy fighting east of
Aachen, the greatest battle of the
western front, the 9Th Army today
overran Bourheim, 2 miles south
west of Julich and less than mile
from the Roer, while other elements
of the 1st Army fought from house
to house in Weisweiler, Z miles from
q second Nazi Roer River strong
point, Duren.
Meanwhile, far to the south, in
fantry of the American 7th Army
tore through German lines on the
north side of the corridor leading
eastward to Strasbourg from the
Saverne area and drove new wedge
to Weyersheim, miles north of
Strasbourg and miles west of the
Rhine.
Strasbourg itself was virtually
cleaned up with 10000 prisoners in
the bag, but the Germans were dug
in at approaches to bridges over
the Rhine in the city. However,
the enemy was falling back in the
great Alsace pocket as the Amer
leans advanced through the Vosges
Mountain passes and the French
1st Army pressed steadily from the
south.
Sd Army Advances.
In the central sector of the front,
the American Sd Army gained up to
AZ miles along its 60-mile line,
lengthening the strip of German soil
in its possession to 20 miles and
wiping out German salient on the
7th Army's north flank.
Good weather permitted Allied
air forces to join in the battle for
the first time in three days. Thir-
teen hundred fighters and medium
bombers of the 9th Air Force and
I'd Tactical Air Force made bomb
ing, strafing and escort sorties into
the Rhineland, some of them di-
rected against retreating German
columns.
The 7th Army's 44th and 10th In
fantry Divisions we're placed in a
strong position to rip into the Ger
mans on the northern side of the
Strasbourg corridor when elements
of the Sd Army, which had crossed
the Saar, advanced, took Baerendorf
and formed junction with the 7th
Army. Both the Sd and 7th Armies
made their advances against a sue
cession of German counterattacks
in which infantry was supported by
tanks and artillery.
The 3rd Armys 95th Division
crossed the Med River against stiff
resistance and gained Az miles
northeastward along the Metz
Saarlautern railroad.
1t was reported here, but not con-
flrmed, that two more German-oc-
cupied fortresses of the Metz area,