They played a major role in Chinese resistance against Japanese occupation, and remain an important part of local historical traditions about the war and the subsequent Communist Revolution.
In a message sent on May 8 but not received until June, Zhou Enlai ordered Zeng and Wang to return to the Pearl River Delta and resume operations against the Japanese.
[2] They killed Chinese collaborators, protected traders in Kowloon and Guangzhou, attacked the police station at Tai Po, and bombed Kai Tak Airport.
[17] In 1943 the East River Column was engaged in a multi-sided war against the Japanese, the KMT's 187th Division, KMT-aligned bandits, and units of Wang Jingwei's collaborationist regime.
[20] The resulting stalemate was resolved when the Americans, who was at the time were hoping to broker a peace in China via the Marshall Mission, offered to transport the East River Column to Communist-held Yantai in Shandong.
The Guangdong Memorial Hall of the East River Column was built to preserve the history of the unit, and exhibits of related artefacts feature prominently in other local museums.
[24] In 1998, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa added the names of the members of the HK-Kowloon Brigade to the memorial shrine at Hong Kong City Hall.