East River Column

East River Column
Soldiers of the East River Column disembark from United States Navy vessels in Shandong, 1945.
Founded	May 8th, 1940
Country	China
Allegiance	Chinese Communist Party
Type	Army Light Infantry
Role	Guerilla warfare
Size	600 (1939)[1] 6,000 (1941)[2] 3,000 (1945)[3]
Commanders
Commander	Zeng Sheng
Chief of Staff	Wang Zuorao
Notable commanders	Liu Tianfu[4]

The East River Column or Dongjiang Column (simplified Chinese: 东江纵队; traditional Chinese: 東江縱隊) was a unit of anti-Japanese Communist guerrillas that operated in Guangdong and Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War. 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. They are also notable outside of China for being the only Chinese Communist unit transported on US Navy vessels, done as part of the peace negotiations led by the Marshall Mission.