40 Thieves on Saipan: The Elite Marine Scout-Snipers in One of WWII’s Bloodiest Battles

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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—where firing a gun could mean instant discovery and death—the 40 Thieves killed in silence during the grueling battle for Saipan, the "D-Day" of the Pacific.

Now Joseph Tachovsky—today's guest and whose father Frank was the commanding officer of the 40 Thieves, also called "Tachovsky's Terrors"—joins 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 “Marine Methods,” stealing. Being the elite of the Sixth Regiment, the Scout-Sniper Platoon excelled at the craft—earning them the nickname of the “40 Thieves” from their envious peers. Upon returning from a 1943 trip to the Pacific theater, Eleanor Roosevelt observed, “The 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.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,
0:09.4	Canada, and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:13.9	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time, focusing on the compelling,
0:20.7	wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders,
0:27.1	environment, and geography.
0:29.5	I invite you to come along for the ride.
0:44.5	History is in just a bunch of names and dates and facts.
0:47.7	It's the collection of all the stories throughout human history that explain how and why we got here.
0:53.1	Welcome to the History and Plug podcast, where we look at the forgotten, neglected, strange,
0:58.0	and even counterfactual stories that made our world what it is.
1:02.1	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:12.1	In the Pacific Theater of World War II, one of the critical milestones that would mean the end of the war there
1:18.1	would be capturing the island of Sipant, which was over a thousand miles away from Japan,
1:22.4	but considered one of the home islands, and it would allow American bombers to reach the Japanese mainland.
1:28.0	And one of the most important but unknown groups that made the conquest of Sipant possible
1:33.0	were a group known as the 40 Thieves.
1:35.4	They were the elite scout sniper platoon of the Six Marine Regiment during World War II.
1:40.6	They mostly worked behind enemy lines in Sipant, where firing a gun could meet instant discovery or death.
1:46.6	Today I'm speaking with Joseph Tachowski, who's father Frank was the commanding officer of the 40 Thieves,
1:51.7	also called Tachowski's terrors.
1:53.5	The reason they were called the 40 Thieves is because the Marines were the poorest equipped branch of the services at the time,
1:58.6	and they were notorious thieves because in order to improve their odds for victory against the Japanese,
	...

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