In the spring of 1965, within weeks of 3,500 American Marines arriving in Vietnam, a 39-year-old Briton named Larry Burrows began work on a feature for LIFE magazine, chronicling the day-to-day experience of U.S. troops on the ground – and in the air – in the midst of the rapidly widening war. The photographs in this gallery focus on a calamitous March 31, 1965, helicopter mission; Burrows’ “report from Da Nang”, featuring his pictures and his personal account of the harrowing operation, was published two weeks later as a now-famous cover story in the April 16, 1965, issue of LIFE.

Photo: Man your battle stations: The crew chief of helicopter Yankee Papa 13, lance corporal James C. Farley, mans an M-60 machine gun during a mission near Da Nang, Vietnam on March 31, 1965. (Photo by Larry Burrows/Time & Life Pictures)

London Zoo photo of Tammy the tree-climbing anteater who is to be given her own minder during a series of late night events at ZSL London Zoo this summer. The twelve-year-old tree-climbing anteater is famed for her friendly disposition, but with naturally poor eyesight zookeepers will be giving Tammy help to steer her past any errant feet in the free-roaming exhibit. (Photo by ZSL London Zoo/PA Wire)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews)

A makeshift cart with containers is seen at a suspected drug tunnel under construction during a media tour by Mexican Army in Tijuana April 7, 2015. Mexican soldiers foiled the construction of a suspected drug tunnel underneath a house near the U.S. border, arresting nine people and impounding a truck used to clear debris, the Army said on Tuesday. Wired with lights, the tunnel was being built next to the Tijuana border crossing, south of San Diego, California, and near a Mexican air force installation as well as a regional federal police facility. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Warriors from the Suri tribe in Ethiopia still stage the savage “Donga” battles – even after many fighters have been died from their injuries. Donga stick fights take place after the harvests, the Surmas count days owing to knots on a long stem of grass or jags on the trunk of a tree dedicated to that specific use. Here: A tribeswoman sporting a huge lip plate and wearing a skinned animal carcass on her head. (Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Exclusivepix Media)

A fellow officer comes to the aid of injured patrolman C.V. Satt, who was pelted with rocks and beer bottles during a clash between police and relief demonstrators in Denver September 23, 1935. (Photo by Henry G. Eisenhand/AP Photo)

Women wearing sunglasses pose for a group photo at a park in Beijing in 1980. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Model Cara Delevingne walks the runway during the Balmain show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2019 on September 28, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by David Fisher/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Israeli security forces arrest an Ultra Orthodox Jewish man as they close a synagogue in the Mea Shearim Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem, on March 30, 2020, amid efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)