'A Date with History' follows 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge

First Division Museum's popular series "A Date with History" continues with a program on the "The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge" on Thursday, Nov. 21. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. at Cantigny Park Visitors Center, 1S151 Winfield Road, Wheaton.

The book, "Loss and Redemption at St. Vith: The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge" by Gregory Fontenot closes a gap in the record of the Battle of the Bulge by recounting the exploits of the 7th Armored Division in a way that no other study has.

Most accounts of the Battle of the Bulge give short-shrift to the interval during which the German forward progress stopped and the American counterattack began. This narrative centers on the 7th Armored Division for the entire length of the campaign, in so doing reconsidering the story of the whole battle through the lens of a single division and accounting for the reconstitution of the division while in combat.

Fontenot is a retired colonel of the U.S. Army a consultant on threat emulation for Army experimentation and a working historian.

He was lead author of "On Point: The U.S. Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom," published by CGSC Press and is the author of "The 1st Infantry Division and the U.S. Army Transformed: Road to Victory in Desert Storm, 1970-1991," the winner of the 2017 Army Historical Foundation award for Unit History. He lives in Lansing, Kansas.

Copies of the featured book will be sold at the gift shop before and after the discussion.

A cash bar will be available along with a small selection of food. Coffee is complimentary.

The monthly programs feature an evening of lively discussion with authors, panelists, historians, and special speakers.

There will be free admission and parking.

For more information, call (630) 260-8130 or visit cantigny.org.