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From COURAGE & DEFIANCEDismounting and checking that the coast was clear, Niels scrambled down to the pavement and slid under the car. He held in his hand a screwdriver his grandfather had made by hand. "With my left hand I placed the sharp point of the screwdriver against the bottom of the fuel tank and struck the tool a silent blow with my right, piercing the tank just slightly and starting a drip-drop of gasoline onto the pavement. "Sliding free of the car, I got up and checked again that the street was silent. Satisfied, I got the book of matches out . . . struck one and threw it under the car where the gasoline drip had already made a small wet spot." As Niels watched, "The fuel caught with a bright yellow flame, larger than I had expected, and it momentarily illuminated the little street scene with me in the center. I grabbed my bike, jumped on and sped off." At the end of the street he stopped to look. "The fire had grown rapidly, and about one minute after I had struck the match, the gas tank exploded, illuminating the street and buildings on both sides. The street was still empty . . ." Niels forced himself not to hurry. Safe in bed an hour later, he thought about what he'd done. It had been remarkably easy, yet he knew it was dangerous. ". . . I also realized how far out of step I was with the rest of the population . . ." Niels was right. Lighting that one match meant he'd crossed a line from peaceful citizen to saboteur. Sabotage was against the law. Niels could be arrested not just by the Germans, but by the Danish police as well. While individual officers might be sympathetic to the cause of resistance, the police force itself was caught in the middle. Danish police were charged with trying to keep unrest from bubbling up into open resistance, which would result in Germany exerting harsher measures of control over Denmark and her people. Although Niels was well aware that what he'd done was both dangerous and illegal, in the end he decided that didn't matter. It had been his first planned, successful act. It wouldn't be his last. "Just wait . . ." he silently addressed the enemy. "There are more matches where these came from."
