The Greatest Football Story Ever Told - Part 5

As part of the build-up to Tour 2015, we’ll be reflecting on some of the most important times in the Reds’ history - something we believe to be the greatest football story ever told. We'll also be hearing from some of the key personalities who have helped create that story. In chapter five of our series we look back on the darkest day in the club's history...

On 6 February, 1958, Manchester United was sent to its knees, shattered by the most shocking of tragedies. After overcoming Red Star Belgrade to reach the European Cup semi-finals for the second successive season, the plane carrying Matt Busby’s squad stopped on its way back home to refuel in Munich. After two failed attempts to leave the slush-strewn runway, the third attempt ended in disaster.


Goalkeeper Harry Gregg recalled the scenes as the British European Airways charter attempted to leave the runway. "As I watched out of the window, the wheels began to lift off the ground,” said the Northern Irishman. “Then bang! There was a sudden crash and debris began bombarding me on all sides. One second it was light, the next dark. There was no screaming, no sounds, only the terrible shearing of metal. Something cracked my skull like a hard-boiled egg. I was hit again at the front. The salty taste of blood was in my mouth. I was afraid to put my hands to my head. An eerie stillness replaced the chaos, punctuated only by the interminable sound of hissing. All around was darkness, as if it was frozen in time."

The plane had failed to take off in time to avoid careering through a fence and colliding with a building at the end of the runway. While Gregg and defender Bill Foulkes were able-bodied enough to haul fellow survivors from the smoking wreckage, few were so fortunate. Of the 44 passengers, 21 were killed instantly, including seven players and three members of club staff.

Geoff Bent (25), Roger Byrne (28), Eddie Colman (21), Mark Jones (24), David Pegg (22), Tommy Taylor (26) and Liam Whelan (22) all died, along with club secretary Walter Crickmer, trainer Tom Curry and coach Bert Whalley. Eight journalists died - Alf Clarke, Tom Jackson, Don Davies, George Fellows, Archie Ledbrook, Eric Thompson, Henry Rose, and former Manchester City goalkeeper Frank Swift. Travel agent Bela Miklos and crew member Tom Cable also died, as did Matt Busby's friend, Willie Satinoff.

The manager, along with Duncan Edwards (21) and Johnny Berry (31) were rated at best a 50-50 shot for surviving their injuries. Plane co-captain Ken Rayment perished and despite a valiant effort which astonished the medical staff tending him, so too did Edwards, two weeks on from the crash. Busby, who was twice read the last rites, battled on against horrific injuries and his own will. “My life had been spared,” he recalled, “though it still hung on only by a thread. I wanted to die.”

His glorious, adorable young team had died that day in Munich. But Busby would go on, and so too would Manchester United.

Credit: manutd.com