Sunday, 25 January 2026

Part 10: The Pegasus Bridge Hero: Denis Edwards

 

The Bridge for Part 10: From Shop Floor to Front Line

Up until now, we have looked at the 'Hush Hush' shop as a place of industry—a hive of precision joinery, volatile chemicals, and '8-stitch' perfection. But the true weight of that work wasn't measured in man-hours or material costs; it was measured in lives.

While the women of Lancing were stretching linen and the men were reinforcing timber floors, a local boy from just down the road was preparing to put their craftsmanship to the ultimate test. His name was Denis Edwards, and on the night of June 5th, 1944, he wasn't just a neighbour; he was a passenger in the lead glider of the most daring 'coup de main' raid in military history. The quality of the work done in the Lancing Carriage Works was about to become the only thing between Denis and the cold reality of the French soil.

The Lancing "Liberation" Links

1. The Pegasus Bridge Hero: Denis Edwards

In a truly incredible local connection, a young man named Denis Edwards lived in Lancing and was a member of the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

  • The Mission: He was a 19-year-old Private in the very first of the three Horsa gliders to crash-land at Pegasus Bridge in the early hours of D-Day.

  • The "Lancing" Circle: Imagine the moment: Denis was sitting inside a Horsa glider—a machine likely containing floor sections and tail units built and doped by his neighbours in the Lancing Carriage Works—as it plummeted toward the Caen Canal. He survived the crash and the fierce battle that followed.

2. The "Sussex Sappers" (Royal Engineers)

The 1st Sussex Engineers (part of the 44th Home Counties Division) had a huge presence in the area, with 263 (Sussex) Field Company based just down the road in Steyning.

  • The Rhine Crossing: These "Sussex Sappers" were the ones tasked with the "heavy lifting" of the liberation. When it came to the Rhine Crossing (Operation Varsity), they would have been the primary users of the Bailey Bridge Pontoons—those very same "plywood boxes" being manufactured in the Hush Hush shop.

The search for Denis Edwards has yielded absolute historical gold. He wasn't just a "witness" to history; he was one of the 180 men of the Coup de Main force—the very first Allied soldiers to touch French soil on D-Day.

And yes, he was a proud resident of Lancing.

The Man: Private Denis "Eddie" Edwards

Denis was born in 1924 and joined the army at just 16 (lying about his age, as many did). He was part of 25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

  • The Lancing Connection: After the war, Denis lived in Lancing for decades. He was a key figure in the Glider Pilot Regimental Association and the local veteran community. He died in 2008, having spent much of his later life sharing the story of what happened that night.

  • The Glider: He was in Glider No. 1 (the lead glider). When it hit the ground at 00:16 am, the deceleration was so violent it threw the men forward with enough force to snap the safety harnesses.

  • The "Lancing" Circle: Think about the geography. While Denis was training for a "suicide mission" in Exeter, his neighbours in the Lancing Works were likely finishing the very floors and tail units of the gliders he would fly in.

The "Liberation" Timeline: Where Lancing Met the Front

EventDateDenis's ExperienceThe Lancing "Work" Link
D-Day (Normandy)6 June 1944Captured Pegasus Bridge in Glider No. 1.Sitting on floors built in the Lancing Shops.
The ArdennesWinter 1944Fought in the "Battle of the Bulge."Glider parts being frantically repaired in the Works.
Rhine CrossingMarch 1945Operation Varsity: Landing near Hamminkeln.The "Lancing Plywood Pontoons" carrying the tanks behind him.    

The "Full Circle" Proof

Denis actually recorded his experiences in a famous book called The Devil’s Own Luck: Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic.

A "Nuts and Bolts" Detail from the Book: Denis describes the Horsa as a "great wooden bird" that creaked and groaned in the wind. He often mentioned how the internal structure was surprisingly sturdy—a direct nod to the high-quality joinery of the railway carriage builders who assembled those frames.

Link to a book review 


For many in Lancing, Denis was more than just a name in a history book. He was the man in the maroon beret standing at the War Memorial every November 11th. He didn't just carry the memories of Pegasus Bridge; he carried the pride of the village that helped build the 'wooden birds' that took him there. 

Denis was a familiar figure in the annual Remembrance Sunday parades, marching from the Legion Hall to the South Street Memorial. For those who saw the maroon beret passing by, he was a living link to a time when Lancing's industrial skill and its young men's bravery were the frontline of European liberation.
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A Personal Connection: The Driver’s View

While Denis Edwards was falling through the night in a wooden Horsa, thousands of men like my father were waiting in the wings. As an RASC driver in a 'Dodge Beep' (marked with the unit code '83'), he was part of the massive supply chain that moved across the very bridges Lancing built. Every time he drove onto a Bailey Bridge, he was trusting the plywood pontoons—built in his own backyard—to keep 4 tons of truck and cargo above the water.

"My father was an RASC driver—one of the thousands of men who kept the Allied advance moving. Like so many of his generation, he didn't speak much of the war. But looking at the photo of him beside his truck, I realise he was likely one of the men depending on the strength of those Lancing-built pontoons to get his cargo across the rivers of Europe."


DetailHistorical FactLocal Link
TruckDodge WC-51RASC Workhorse
Unit 83Infantry Brigade TransportThe "Heavy Lifters" of the Division
Bridge Plate 4/8Weight RatingThe "Pass" for Lancing Pontoons

Decoding the Markings on the Truck

  • The "83" (Unit Serial Number): This is the most significant clue. In an Infantry Division of the 21st Army Group, the number 83 on a Red and Green diagonal background was the code for the RASC Transport Company attached to the Infantry Brigade. Specifically, it usually identified the company supporting the Senior Brigade of the division.

    The technical markings on my father’s wartime truck reveal a hidden connection to the very bridges Lancing helped build. His vehicle carried a yellow 'Bridge Classification' plate marked 48, a code used by the RASC (Royal Army Service Corps) to signify a truck and trailer combination with a total laden weight of around 8 tons. Every time he drove his Dodge 'Beep' across the Rhine or the Maas, he was placing his life and his cargo in the hands of his Sussex neighbours. He relied on the strength of those Lancing-built plywood pontoons to keep his 8-ton load buoyant and stable as he moved vital supplies toward the heart of Germany.
The "Nuts and Bolts" of the RASC Driver

  • The Bridge Connection: The Royal Engineers would arrive at a river (like the Rhine) and launch the Lancing-built plywood pontoons.

  • The Crossing: Once the Bailey Bridge was secured, the RASC drivers were the very first to take the heavy loads across.

  • The Load: A "Squad" usually focused on specific supplies. Given the Lancing connection to gliders, it’s worth noting that the RASC also transported the spare parts and "dope" lacquers needed to keep aircraft in the field.

  • The "Beep": The truck itself is a Dodge WC-51 (often called a "Weapons Carrier" or "Beep"). These were American-built and highly prized by RASC drivers because of their four-wheel drive capability, allowing them to scramble through the mud of Holland and Germany where larger trucks would flounder.

"To truly understand the scale of the challenge faced by the Royal Engineers and drivers like my father, one only has to look at the 'Grand Shunt' across the Rhine in 1945. The following film shows the incredible momentum of Operation Plunder, featuring the very type of floating Bailey bridges that relied on thousands of Sussex-built plywood pontoons to span the water and carry the weight of the Allied liberation."

[Watch: The Rhine Crossing - Bridging the Gap (External Link)]

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Did you know? The Green Turtle (Railwaymen’s Club) on South Street, where many of these veterans later socialised, was originally built in 1928 by Mr Tom Lance at a cost of £6,500—long before it became the heart of the village's wartime social life.

Special thanks to Margaret Sear for her fantastic research in the Worthing Herald archives, uncovering the 1939 clipping that finally identified Mr Tom Lance as the original builder of the Lancing Club (The Green Turtle) in 1928.
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