Following the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, competitive domestic football was effectively halted. At the time, Manchester United were preparing for only their second season back in the First Division following promotion in 1938. Their return to the First Division was largely underwhelming, having finished in 14th place.
The club at the time were in heavy debt and there was an expensive mortgage on Old Trafford of £25,000. There were not enough funds for transfers however new players were desperately needed, therefore the club formed Manchester United Junior Athletic Club (MUJAC). The aim of the organisation was to identify, recruit and develop young local footballers with a view to them eventually progressing into the first-team. Whilst their senior side could hardly be defined as anything more than middling, the Youth Team flourished, winning the Chorlton Amateur League in 1939, scoring an incredible 223 goals in the process. They correspondingly won the Manchester Senior Cup. Given the success of (MUJAC), the club had lofty ambitions to assemble three teams of first-team status.
United started their 1939/40 First Division campaign with a 4-0 win against Grimsby, but then came a draw with Chelsea and defeat to Charlton on the eve of the announcement of war. Two days afterwards, parts of Old Trafford were requisitioned as a military depot and they lost their training facilities at Lower Broughton for similar reasons. The United playing staff, like so many other teams, were posted up and down the country. Whilst the bulk of football competitions were suspended as the country’s attentions turned to the war effort, regional league competitions were set up instead. Often teams struggled to fulfil their fixtures as many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result many teams were depleted.
Stanley Pearson was one of the first United players to join the forces. He served with 2nd/4th Lancashire Regiment and later in the war he went to India where he played for Denis Compton’s touring side. Many more United players featured throughout the war effort in the proceeding six years. Charlie Mitten, who made his debut in November 1939, served in the Azores with the RAF and once scored all 13 goals for a unit side against a local team. Service also took Johnny Morris, who debuted for United in August 1941. He voyaged across the Rhine in a tank whilst serving with the Royal Armoured Corps. Jimmy Hanlon, who signed as a trainee in 1934, netted 133 goals in just two-and-a-half years before being sent out East in 1942 and captured fighting in Crete. He spent the remainder of the war in an Italian camp and was later transferred to Stalag IVB in Germany.
This lead to many teams fielding ‘guest’ players. Professional players and even trainees would feature for many clubs within reach of where they were deployed whilst serving. Without the same, the wartime game would have certainly collapsed as an organised entity. United Goalkeeper Tommy Breen was sent to Northern Ireland and guested for Belfast Celtic, which ironically was the same club he had been signed from just three years earlier. Centre-forward Jack Rowley guested for Shrewsbury Town and later Wolves. Rowley himself spent six-years in the South Staffs Regiment and was landed at D-Day. United, of course, guested players too. Two of the earliest players to guest for United were Len Butt from Blackburn and Bolton’s Tommy Woodward.
United played their first friendly two weeks after conflicts began, a 2-2 draw with Bolton. Their first game in the newly formed Regional League North was at home to neighbours Manchester City who won 4-0. City were the victors again in April 1940 when they beat United 1-0, again at Old Trafford, this time in a wartime cup game. United managed to get their own back on their Maine Road rivals, who also scored a League success against them, when a week later in the Cup they won by two clear goals. Blackburn halted the Cup run however in the very next round. United succumbed to four successive defeats in the final weeks of the League which cost them the Division title.
Heavy raids on Manchester in December 1940 caused the club to switch a fixture with Blackburn Rovers from Manchester to Stockport. Raids continued to threaten Manchester and United’s 7-3 win at Old Trafford on 8th March 1941 was their last at Old Trafford for eight years. A few weeks after Old Trafford was bombed and heavily damaged. Manchester City quickly offered to help their neighbours, proposing Maine Road be used as a temporary home for United until Old Trafford could be rebuilt. Maine Road become United’s new wartime headquarters and they played their first fixture there against Blackpool, losing 3-2. United soon grew into their new surroundings and unceremoniously on Easter Monday, thanked their City rivals for their hospitality by thrashing them 7-1. United won their first wartime honour, the Lancashire Cup, in May 1941, beating Burnley 1-0.
At the start of the 1941-42 season, United beat New Brighton 13-1, managing to field a full-strength side. Jack Rowley scored seven goals in that game. In November, United took on future fierce rivals Liverpool in a 2-2 draw at Anfield, with Rowley once again netting both goals. Rowley’s younger brother, Arthur Rowley, played on the left-wing at the age of just 15-years-old. Arthur Rowley went on to play just seven more times for United before being released in May 1944. He went on to break the record for the most goals in the history of English league football, scoring 434 from 629 league games, a record that still stands to this day.
At the conclusion of the 1941-42 season, United clinched the Second Championship of the League North after defeating rivals City 3-1 and in doing so, pipped Blackpool on goal average. Whilst United failed to win any further wartime honours, they continued to hunt diligently for new players. By 1941 they had 64 registered players, a year later it went up to 76 and it peaked at 82 in 1944, although not all were professional.
In May 1945, just four months prior to the end of the war, United met Bolton in the final of the League North Cup. It was a rocky road to the final for United. The Cup qualifying competition had seen them lose twice to Manchester City and needing a win to qualify for the knock-out rounds. They were beaten 1-0 by Halifax at The Shay, but with the game goalless and three minutes remaining of the return, United completed a two-goal turnaround with goals from guest player Cliff Chadwick of Middlesbrough and full back John Roach. United defeated Burnley, Stoke, Doncaster and Chesterfield to reach the resulting final.
Bolton won the first game 1-0 at Burnden Park and held United to a 2-2 draw at Maine Road. United played four guests in the second game which included R White of Tottenham, Asbury of Chester, Sloan and Glidden of Tranmere. Both Chadwick and Chilton had played in the first leg but did not play in the second leg. Chadwick, most notably at the time, was training paratroopers and dropping saboteurs over enemy-occupied Europe.
The war ended in September 1945. Matt Busby took up the position of manager in October 1945. There were no training facilities at United and the dressing-rooms were dilapidated. The club were still playing home fixtures at Manchester City’s Maine Road and their overdraft stood at a hefty £15,000.00. Guest players still had to be called upon whilst players concluded service, but by the end of the 1945/46 season, United had just one guest player in Bolton player, Lol Hamlett.
In the three-years following the conclusion of the war, United remained at Maine Road, finishing runners-up in the league on three consecutive occasions and lifting the FA cup in 1948. After pressure from United Chairman James Gibson, the War Damage Commission granted Manchester United £4,800 to remove the debris at Old Trafford and £17,478 to rebuild the stands. The stadium was rebuilt and reopened on August 24, 1949.
