The United Connection - the 'little one' that got away

News that the plane carrying the Manchester United team and journalists back to the UK after a European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade had crashed, made little impression on me, as I busily pushed my new red wheelbarrow around our living room just one day after my fifth birthday.


On 6 February 1958, the flight back to Manchester made a refuelling stop at Munich-Riem Airport in poor weather. Two take-off attempts were abandoned due to engine problems, with the weather continuing to deteriorate. On the third attempt, slush on the runway prevented the aircraft from reaching the required speed for take-off.

The British European Airways (BEA) plane, with 38 passengers and 6 crew on board, ploughed through a fence past the end of the runway, before the port wing hit a nearby house and was torn off.….23 people died as a result of the crash.

Johnny Berry was the smallest, the oldest and the vice-captain of the great ‘Busby Babes’ team of the 1950’s.

Born on June 1st 1926 in Aldershot he showed early promise playing for St Joseph's School, Aldershot Boys and the YMCA.

He interested the Shots but when the time came to make a ‘decision’ he was considered as being ‘too small’ to make a career in football.

On leaving school he worked as a trainee projectionist at a local cinema.

But it was during his National Service with the Royal Artillery in India that he was brought to Birmingham City's attention, and he signed as a professional at St Andrews after being demobbed.

Johnny had a fairly productive time at St. Andrews but spent just 4 years there. His journey to Old Trafford came after he had destroyed United in a First Division league game in Birmingham, a performance that Matt Busby never forgot.

With Jimmy Delaney having left a few months earlier for Aberdeen, United needed a fast, direct winger who had experience to help with their push to achieve their first championship win since 1911.

In August 1951, United paid Birmingham £25,000 for the diminutive little winger. He had an immediate impact and United duly achieved their aim, being crowned Champions at the end of the 1951-52 season, for the first time in 41 years.


Johnny Berry played 276 games in all competitions for Manchester United scoring 45 goals and he made 4 appearances for England.

It was amazing that Johnny survived the crash. His injuries were horrific; fractured skull and broken jaw, broken elbow and leg, broken pelvis and he was in a coma for almost two months after the tragedy.

Sadly when he returned home to Manchester many months later, he still had no clear idea of what had happened and he initially thought that he had been in a car crash.

He was admitted into a Manchester hospital upon arrival and even then had to undergo the removal of all his teeth to help with the jaw injuries.

His first knowledge of what had happened came when he picked up a local newspaper reporting a 'United' game on the back page. Johnny was confused by the team line-up; in fact he couldn’t believe it. He badgered the nurse, forcing her to call a doctor. But when he arrived the spoken words were from another world. A world that Johnny simply could not understand. The tragedy began to unfold and Johnny asked about his team mates...the doctor went through the ‘team sheet’ name by name…….....'Bent'...'I'm so sorry he died'....'Byrne'...'I'm sorry he died'.....Colman, Edwards, Jones, Pegg, Taylor, Whelan.....all dead.

Berry’s injuries meant that he was never able to play football again and he took a job with Massey Ferguson in Trafford Park.

Then in 1960, 'United' asked Johnny to vacate his club house in Davyhulme to accommodate the signing of Maurice Setters.

The family moved back home to Aldershot and Johnny, along with his brother Peter who had played for Crystal Palace and Ipswich, opened a sports shop in Cove.

In 1963 I was selected to represent Aldershot and Farnborough Schools and remember nagging my Dad to buy me a new pair of football boots to replace the ones I had been using, courtesy of the ‘lost property box’ at the school where he was Head Teacher.


We called in to Berry’s sports shop in Victoria Road, which my somewhat distorted memory tells me was just by Queensmead. The shop was full of wonderful boots. They were set out so invitingly on shelves that stretched up to the ceiling…..and they all had ‘my name on them’.

And I remember so vividly the gentle intensity that Johnny displayed in his effort to sell a pair to my Dad.

We left the shop with my head full of Johnny’s stories from Old Trafford securely wrapped up with my Dad’s wise words ….’you’ll get a few more games out of your old boots son…..I’ll look out a new tin of dubbin’.

I think the sports business carried on for 20 years and Johnny spent the last few years of his working life as a store man in a television retail chain warehouse.

Sadly, Reginald John ‘Johnny’ Berry didn’t enjoy a long retirement, passing away in March 1994 aged just 67 years.