Over a two year period, this guerrilla force raided and ambushed Japanese positions, pillaged supplies and destroyed ammunition dumps. Even though the highland lakes region was of little strategic value military speaking, it allowed the gathering of precious information on Japanese positions in the region, which would prove useful during the Western New Guinea campaign. Above all, it was essentially a symbolical 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. He was personally awarded the Netherlands Cross of Merit, the Netherlands Bronze Cross and the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Queen Wilhelmina.