Rita Hayworth’s Role in the Battle of Bulge

The death of Rita Hayworth from Alzheimer’s disease was truly a sad death for so lovely a lady. I prefer to remember her as I saw her during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944. Let me explain.

The infantry division to which I belonged, the 80th Infantry, and the 4th Armored Division were the first of George Patton’s army to arrive in Luxembourg to attack the German units surrounding Bastogne. The fighting was very severe and the 317th Infantry, of which I was a member, was suffering about 200 casualties a day. Many of those died before they could be evacuated because of the waist-deep snow which impeded evacuation efforts by litter (there were, of course, no choppers a la “M.A.S.H.”).

There was little to ease our suffering from the extreme cold, the incessant artillery fire, and the ferocity of the fighting. However, on New Year’s Eve we were fortunate to obtain a copy of Miss Hayworth’s movie, “Cover Girl,” in which she starred with Fred Astaire. We were equally fortunate to find an old barn that was still intact about 500 yards in back of the front.

GI ingenuity converted this structure into a blacked-out theater complete with some old scrounged stoves that were able to heat the building to about 80 degrees. It thus served as a place to warm our men and entertain them for about a two-hour stretch.

We ran the movie continually and were able to accommodate about 200 men at a time, so in one evening we were able to get almost all the remaining members of our regiment through to see the movie and have some relief from the severe weather.

The Germans knew we were doing something because they could hear the sound track. Fortunately, they did not know where the building was, so though they directed a tremendous amount of artillery fire in that direction they could only aim randomly.

It is a tribute to the beauty and artistry of Miss Hayworth that despite the nearness of some of the shells no one even flinched.

When the movie was over we went back to the front and the following day we suffered another 200 casualties. The last pleasant memory that these casualties had was of Miss Hayworth’s beauty.

JAMES H. HAYES

Westlake Village