A frontline worker in personal protective equipment (PPE) sprays a flammable liquid on a burning funeral pyre of a man who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a crematorium on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, April 15, 2021. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

A woman cuts her hair during a protest against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini and the government of Iran on October 02, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

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)

White horses of the Camargue thunder through the shallow salt flats at sunset on December 8, 2022. Known as Horses of the Sea, the breed native to the wetlands in southern France is one of the oldest in the world. (Photo by Nathalie Mountain/Media Drum Images)

Friends (L-R) Katherine Olson, Olivia Carroll and Maron Ross take a memory during the 148th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 20, 2023. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

Macaque monkeys sit on a car in Hua Hin on May 29, 2020, as low tourist numbers due to the ongoing COVID-19 novel coronavirus situation have resulted in a decrease in the number of people feeding them. The monkeys in the town are going hungry as a consequence of the drop in tourism as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Jack Taylor/AFP Photo)

Kindergartner Cameron McManus, 5, watches as a fellow student has his portrait made during “picture day” at Rogers International School on September 23, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Students lined up outside to be photographed while socially distanced due to COVID-19 precautions. Most students at Stamford Public Schools are taking part in a hybrid education model, attending in-school classes every other day and distance learning the rest. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

“La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, in which participants throw tomatoes at each other”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A man sits in tomato pulp at the end of the world's biggest tomato fight at La Tomatina festival on August 26, 2009 in Bunol, Spain. More than 45000 people from all over the world descended on the small Valencian town to participate La Tomatina festival, with the local town hall estimating that over 100 tons of rotten and over-ripe tomatoes were thrown. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)