[1][2] The DST consisted of about 570 men at its establishment in 1945 and had a precursor in the Korps Insulinde ('Insulindia Corps') that conducted clandestine operations during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies.

The KST, which would reach a maximum strength of 1250 men, was composed of Dutch war volunteers (OVWs), Eurasians and native soldiers, including Moluccans.

When the Indonesian nationalists turned to guerrilla warfare, the special forces were increasingly called upon and the revolutionaries learned to avoid confrontations with units of the KST as much as possible.

When the troops of the KST left an area for operations elsewhere, the nationalists simply returned to resume their guerrilla actions against Dutch regulars.

[4] Exemplary of the qualitative advantage of the KST/RST over the fighters of the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI; 'Indonesian National Military') was the final operation of the RST prior to the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference in August 1949.

A number of them were involved in an attempted coup d'état against the regime of Sukarno in January 1950, as part of the Angkatan Perang Ratu Adil (APRA; 'Just Ruler Legion') led by former Captain Raymond Westerling.