Over a two-year period, this guerilla force raided and ambushed Japanese positions, pillaged supplies and destroyed ammunition dumps, killing more than 30 Japanese soldiers in the process. Although they managed to divert some Japanese forces and destroy their supplies, the highland lakes region was of little military importance. Nevertheless, it did allow the gathering of information on Japanese positions at Nabire, Timika, Fakfak and further west at Ambon, which proved useful during the Western New Guinea campaign. It was essentially a symbolic victory, as de Bruijn was portrayed as the irreducible symbol of Dutch resistance in the Dutch East Indies by allied and Dutch propaganda, waving the flag and maintaining the prestige of the Dutch among the inhabitants of the area, just as Hermann Detzner had done in German New Guinea 20 years before, and who was a source of inspiration for de Bruijn. Queen Wilhelmina personally awarded him the Netherlands Cross of Merit, the Netherlands Bronze Cross and the Order of Orange-Nassau. Among the Dutch, he was the exception rather than the rule, and their prestige was seriously damaged by the Japanese occupation, which led to the Indonesian war of independence and the subsequent Dutch withdrawal from the country in 1949. However, Western New Guinea was spared by the fighting, as the Dutch still enjoyed popularity among the native population, and remained in their hands until 1962, before its transfer to Indonesia the following year.