Episode 37 - Johannesburg falls to the British

We are into week 37 of this series and Johannesburg lies before Lord Roberts’ army. But he’s using a Velvet Glove which in retrospect is one of the biggest bungles of his career. While he frets over the details in Johannesburg, Colvile is given a severe case of bloody nose by the Boers in Lindley in the Free State. Lord Robert’s large army has made its way over 1400 kilometers from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and in the north, the Transvaal Republic Capital Pretoria awaits his khaki dressed soldiers. The mines are safe, and that’s been one of the main worries facing the British commander as he marched northwards, with Oom or Uncle Paul Kruger the Boer President threatening to blow them up, while his General, Louis Botha, was threatening to protect these mines saying it would be cowardly to destroy them. Lord Roberts thought it best to allow the Boers to withdraw as the commander of Johannesburg, a Mr Krause, asked that the last commandos be allowed out and avoid the killing of women and children who remained in the city. Their commander in chief, their hero Kruger, remained at large. For black workers in Johannesburg It must have been an utter shock to discover that the English were not their saviours, that the plan was to force the 14 000 back to role serving the gold mine owners for measly few shillings a month.