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The Lost Babes: Manchester United and the Forgotten Victims of Munich
The Manchester United team in the fifties seemed destined to dominate soccer for many years. The average age of the side that won the Championship in 1955-56 was just 22, the youngest ever to achieve such a feat. But then came February 6, 1958, the day that eight Manchester United players died on a German airfield—a date forever etched in the annals of sporting tragedy. Jeff Connor traces the rise of the greatest Manchester United side of all time, alongside a vibrant portrait of England in the 1950s, but he also paints a dark picture of a club that enriched itself on the myth of Munich while neglecting the families of the dead and the surviving players. Drawing on extensive interviews with the Munich victims and players of that era, The Lost Babes is the definitive account of British football's golden age, and a poignant story of the protracted effects of loss.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 14, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 20, 2011
I wasn't born...but certainly my bred was well baked in Old Trafford. I just missed the Munich team by only a few years. My earliest memories see a back-peddling team in red, avoiding relegation by the skin of their teeth. 1960-61. The Busby babe ghosts of Gregg,Foulkes,Charlton and Viollet were in my first United team.
Jeff Connor's 'The Lost Babes' published 2007 brings back the memories. His treatment of the club's, and the city of Manchester's history is well written. Very many of the locations included in the text are more than familiar to me. Certainly, I believe the 6th of February 1958 to have transformed Manchester United FC into becoming the Manchester United PLC of today. Perhaps the modern corporate game was born itself in the slush of that Munich runway. I can share many of Connor's sentiments, particularly with regard to the controlling directors, post Munich.
Jeff Connor's 'The Lost Babes' published 2007 brings back the memories. His treatment of the club's, and the city of Manchester's history is well written. Very many of the locations included in the text are more than familiar to me. Certainly, I believe the 6th of February 1958 to have transformed Manchester United FC into becoming the Manchester United PLC of today. Perhaps the modern corporate game was born itself in the slush of that Munich runway. I can share many of Connor's sentiments, particularly with regard to the controlling directors, post Munich.
November 15, 2012
the author is a big lier because manchester united are not not the best team ever and manchester united are big loosers and they dont deserve it
I didnt like the story at all and i will not ask anyone to read because they are big lers
I didnt like the story at all and i will not ask anyone to read because they are big lers
January 8, 2013
The Book you should read if you want to fully understand what happened to the best Manchester United side. A young team that had so much potential, lost in a matter of days.
An important read for all football fans and not only United fans.
An important read for all football fans and not only United fans.
January 5, 2025
Jeff Connor's book tells the story of the Busby Babes before and after the Munich Air Disaster of 6th February 1958. It features potted biographies of all the players - both the dead and the survivors - and their families.
It is also something of an inditement of Manchester United's parsimonious treatment of those players and their families despite the important part the Munich Disaster plays in Manchester United's mythology. Whether things have improved since this book was published in 2007 I don't know. I know that all the players who survived are now dead, with Bobby Charlton being the last to die in 2023. What now is done for their families I don't know. The fact that despite donating - not gifting - memorabilia to the Manchester United Museum they were still being charged to get in.
I do know that the Munich Air Disaster has created a series of 'what ifs' that will never be answered. What if that team hadn't died. What would Manchester United have achieved then. What would England have achieved? It is also a story of survivors and their guilt.
Connor does also talk about the non-footballer deaths too: journalists, the steward, the co-pilot, a Manchester business man and others. Who often get forgotten about in the story. We also hear a little about the pilot, Peter Thain, whose reputation never recovered and a little of the British government's cover-up of a report that would have exonerated him for fear of upsetting the German government.
Connor's writing is clear and business like. He never really reaches for the spectacular, but why should he need to? Sometimes a story tells itself. He did interview survivors and their families and makes an interesting point that the daughters and wives are usually more scathing about Manchester United than the sons. But it seems to me that over time Manchester United failed in its moral duty to the players and their families.
But that's football. Other teams have suffered similar - or worse - catastrophes: Torino in 1949 and Chapecoense in 2016. I know little about the Torino incident and it doesn't seem to have imbedded itself in football mythology the way Munich has (outside Torino). I saw an excellent documentary about the Chapecoense disaster as few years ago.
I would recommend this as an introductory read on the disaster and the team. There are lots of other books on the subject - as well as many of the people involved - so if you want to know more then you can dig into those. I really recommend the first volume of Sir Bobby Charlton's autobiography for example.
It is also something of an inditement of Manchester United's parsimonious treatment of those players and their families despite the important part the Munich Disaster plays in Manchester United's mythology. Whether things have improved since this book was published in 2007 I don't know. I know that all the players who survived are now dead, with Bobby Charlton being the last to die in 2023. What now is done for their families I don't know. The fact that despite donating - not gifting - memorabilia to the Manchester United Museum they were still being charged to get in.
I do know that the Munich Air Disaster has created a series of 'what ifs' that will never be answered. What if that team hadn't died. What would Manchester United have achieved then. What would England have achieved? It is also a story of survivors and their guilt.
Connor does also talk about the non-footballer deaths too: journalists, the steward, the co-pilot, a Manchester business man and others. Who often get forgotten about in the story. We also hear a little about the pilot, Peter Thain, whose reputation never recovered and a little of the British government's cover-up of a report that would have exonerated him for fear of upsetting the German government.
Connor's writing is clear and business like. He never really reaches for the spectacular, but why should he need to? Sometimes a story tells itself. He did interview survivors and their families and makes an interesting point that the daughters and wives are usually more scathing about Manchester United than the sons. But it seems to me that over time Manchester United failed in its moral duty to the players and their families.
But that's football. Other teams have suffered similar - or worse - catastrophes: Torino in 1949 and Chapecoense in 2016. I know little about the Torino incident and it doesn't seem to have imbedded itself in football mythology the way Munich has (outside Torino). I saw an excellent documentary about the Chapecoense disaster as few years ago.
I would recommend this as an introductory read on the disaster and the team. There are lots of other books on the subject - as well as many of the people involved - so if you want to know more then you can dig into those. I really recommend the first volume of Sir Bobby Charlton's autobiography for example.
January 27, 2018
Connor sets out to honor the Busby Babes; not just those who lost their lives in Munich but also those who lost their careers and those who continued to play.
Although this book is filled with quotes from families and Harry Gregg in particular I am somewhat sceptical of accuracy. Connor clearly has a dislike for the modern day club of Manchester United and has lost touch with the average fan (I can inform Connor that over my 17 years of gracing Old Trafford I have sung, alongside my fellow fans, the United Calypso at least once per game. It not lost from the terraces as he so desively claimed, we honor the fallen).
However, that said it is a rather charming read, albeit somewhat repettative. Connor graces the babes with accounts of careers and reputations alongside funny anecdotes.
It is worth the read but I implore you to take it as it is, one man's memory of a team rather than an historical account of an event.
Although this book is filled with quotes from families and Harry Gregg in particular I am somewhat sceptical of accuracy. Connor clearly has a dislike for the modern day club of Manchester United and has lost touch with the average fan (I can inform Connor that over my 17 years of gracing Old Trafford I have sung, alongside my fellow fans, the United Calypso at least once per game. It not lost from the terraces as he so desively claimed, we honor the fallen).
However, that said it is a rather charming read, albeit somewhat repettative. Connor graces the babes with accounts of careers and reputations alongside funny anecdotes.
It is worth the read but I implore you to take it as it is, one man's memory of a team rather than an historical account of an event.
February 24, 2018
A thoroughly moving book that is a must read for all sports fans. I cannot believe that a huge club with the resources they have at their disposal have not compensated the victims of this disaster by other than a paltry amount. Thanks to the author for bringing this out into the open, they should be extremely ashamed. A disaster that will forever live in my memory.
May 11, 2021
Exceptional read
Excellent read, very poignant following the forgotten families and players who’s tragedy continued on past the Munich disaster. Very well written
Excellent read, very poignant following the forgotten families and players who’s tragedy continued on past the Munich disaster. Very well written
December 31, 2018
This is a fascinating book about the Munich plane crash that decimated Manchester United's football team in 1958. It concentrates on club's history under manager Matt Busby and the introduction of a group of young players that came to de known as the Busby Babes. The book details the treatment of the families of the victims of the Munich crash, along with the players who never fully recovered physically. It does not show the club in a particularly good light, and is a tough read.
September 21, 2009
Very interesting book on the history of Munich and the people involved. A little dry at times as it went through the lives of each person, and I expected more related to how the club did or did not take care of survivors. Overall, I would have given it a 3.5
Want to read
March 25, 2013I got this for my 19th birthday. I can hardly wait to read it but I know it will have to wait till summer (or what a university student calls summer which oddly enough starts in April/May...)
March 28, 2022
Made me really hate Manchester United even more.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews