Rather than concentrating their fire on me - and I certainly couldn't have made it through had they done so - they seemed to be watching incredulously as my body would appear, then disappear hanging above the river. The enemy watched in a mixture of what seemed to be humor and amazement.(and of course, that passage minimizes the fire he was taking, including the previously mentioned 100mm tank shells). The mining of the bridge took Ripley and Major Smock two hours to accomplish.
Regarding Ripley's blasting cap crimping, by mouth, to the fuse:
All the while I recalled the demonstration of the destructive power of a blasting cap I had seen. When inserted into a softball it had blown it to shreds. My mouth didn't seem as tough as the softball. I could only imagine what a mistake would do to me.