A snow moon rears above a sycamore tree at Burrow Hill Cider Farm in Somerset, UK in the last decade of February 2024. (Photo by Jeff Overs/The Times)

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)

A model models shoes at the Chloe Gosselin Presentation during Fall 2016 New York Fashion Week at Lori Bookstein Fine Art on February 14, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)

English actress Sophie Turner, from left, American actress Chloe Grace Moretz and Thai-Norwegian actress and model Urassaya Sperbund attend the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2023-2024 ready-to-wear collection presented Monday, March 6, 2023 in Paris. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP Photo)

Demi Sims her older sisters Chloe and Frankie, cast members of the British television series “The Only Way Is Essex” during filming in Marbella, resort area on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol on September 17, 2019. (Photo by Beretta/Sims/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

English TV personality Chloe Ferry joins friends Kimberly Hart-Simpson (Coronation Street) Sophie Kasaei, Abbie Holborn, Bethan Kershaw and Tahlia Chung (Geordie Shore) to LooseFest 22 on July 30, 2022. LooseFest is one of the largest music festivals ever to take place in the North of England and is located on the city of Newcastle's famous Town Moor. Pictured: Chloe Ferry, Kimberly Hart-Simpson, Sophie Kasaei. (Photo by Terry Blackburn/Backgrid UK)

Winton Elementary fifth graders Juliana Ragan, from left, Chloe Windsor and Paisley Ganske wait backstage for their turn to perform as the Andrew Sisters during the Pearl Harbor/Veterans assembly at the school on Monday, December 7, 2015, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Dec. 7 is the 74th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. (Photo by Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review via AP Photo)

Towie star Pete Wicks and Chloe Sims seen leaving Pride of Britain Awards held at Grosvenor House on October 29, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)