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b'Before there were Navy SEALs, before there were Green Berets, there were the 40 Thieves: the elite Scout Sniper Platoon of the Sixth Marine Regiment during World War II.


Behind enemy lines on the island of Saipan\\u2014where firing a gun could mean instant discovery and death\\u2014the 40 Thieves killed in silence during the grueling battle for Saipan, the "D-Day" of the Pacific.


Now Joseph Tachovsky\\u2014today\'s guest and whose father Frank was the commanding officer of the 40 Thieves, also called "Tachovsky\'s Terrors"\\u2014joins with award-winning author Cynthia Kraack to transport readers back to the brutal Battle of Saipan.

World War 2 Marines were the poorest equipped branch of the services at that time, and they were notorious thieves. To improve their odds for victory against the Japanese, they found it necessary to improve their supply chains through \\u201cMarine Methods,\\u201d stealing. Being the elite of the Sixth Regiment, the Scout-Sniper Platoon excelled at the craft\\u2014earning them the nickname of the \\u201c40 Thieves\\u201d from their envious peers. Upon returning from a 1943 trip to the Pacific theater, Eleanor Roosevelt observed, \\u201cThe Marines I have met around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marines.\\u201d'