Today in World War II History—March 14, 1940 & 1945

Men of US Mars Task Force on Loi-Kang Ridge, Burma, 475th Infantry, 19 January 1945. (US Army Center of Military History)
80 Years Ago—March 14, 1940: Germans are required to turn in copper, bronze, brass, lead, tin, nickel, and other metals for the war effort.
Movie premiere of Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.
75 Years Ago—Mar. 14, 1945: First US infantry arrive in China, the Mars Task Force, ferried by the Air Transport Command.
In the RAF’s first use of the 22,000-lb Grand Slam, bombers hit the Bielefeld and Arnsberg rail viaducts, and the Bielefeld viaduct collapses.