THE SENTINAL PRINT BY MICHAEL WOOTEN

21" X 17 1/2"

This painting and poem is based on a photograph that was taken in 1974 of a 2nd Armored Division Sherman tank in a field between Magoster and Beffe, Belgium. It was a casualty of the 2nd SS-Panzerdivision in the Ardenne in January of 1945.

"By this fence near a quiet wood,  I sit alone where once I stood,  Beside my brothers in a row;  As Panzers attacked from the treeline below.

The farmland echoed the sound of war,  Where only peace had been before,   And here where things are meant to grow,   I fought and fell in blood-staind snow.  

The years since then have drifted by,  I rust away beneath the sky, In a country free from Hitler's reign, My sacrifice was not in vain."