A Palestinian protester sets fire to himself as he throws a molotov cocktail during clashes with the members of the Israeli armed forces in the West Bank city of Hebron, 13 October 2015. The past 12 days have seen the worst spell of street violence in Israel and the Palestinian areas in years, stirred in part by Muslim anger over perceived changes to the status quo observed at a disputed Jerusalem holy site. Sixteen Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem have been killed, but more than half of them have been attackers shot dead after or during attempts to stab Israelis. (Photo by Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA)

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)

People cool off in a fountain outside the Southbank Centre on June 30, 2015 in London, England. The UK is currently experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures of 35 degree celsius forecast tomorrow in some parts of the country. The extreme heat has already seen train cancellations and a health warning has been issued. (Photo by Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

Festival goer practice yoga during the O.Z.O.R.A. festival on August 4, 2016 in Tolna, Hungary. Ozora is a village in Tolna County. In recent times it has become famous for the O.Z.O.R.A. psychedelic trance festival which has been held on an estate in Ozora near small village Dadpuszta every year since 2004. The first party was called Solipse and took place during the Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999. (Photo by Mohai Balázs/MTI/MTVA)

Cardboard cut outs of the faces of three candidates for the Republican nomination for the 2016 US Presidential election (L-R) Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, are seen set up on urinals in a pub in London on March 1, 2016 as part of an informal poll for customers to log which they dislike the most. Part of the satirical television show The Last Leg, customers at the pub are able to choose which urinal to use and then log their poll on a list on the wall afterwards. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP Photo)

A tourist walks inside the Ice Palace glacier hollow at Hintertux glacier, located at around 3250 meters above sea level, in Zillertal, Austria, 02 March, 2016. The hollow's temperature remains constant at 0 degrees Celsius, in summer and winter alike, and is also used by the University of Innsbruck for scientific research projects. (Photo by Lisi Niesner/EPA)

Mahouts return home with their elephants carrying grass to feed them on the eve of the rhino census in Kaziranga National Park in Assam state, India, 24 March 2015. Kaziranga will be closed to visitors for the next two days for a census of the rhinos commencing 25 March, in a previous census in 2013 in the park the population of the Indian rhinos was 2329. (Photo by EPA/Stringer)

A mahout rides an elephant at Tad Sae Waterfall outside Luang Prabang, Laos July 31, 2016. Protected by the United Nations cultural heritage agency UNESCO, Luang Prabang is one of the most alluring places in the region – a city that evokes old-world romance that has gained a reputation as a travellers' Shangri La. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)