A model attends a fashion show at the “German Fetish Ball” in Berlin, Germany on May 12, 2018. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

The moon rises on the behind the “Torchbearer” statue in Hannover, Germany, Wednesday, November 5, 2025. (Photo by Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP Photo)

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 poses beside the Porsche Hybrid during the media day of the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition at Shanghai New International Expo Center on April 19, 2011 in Shanghai, China. The 14th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition (Auto Shanghai 2011) will be held from April 21 to 28 with the theme of “Innovation For Tomorrow”. About 2,000 carmakers and parts providers from 20 countries are due to showcase 1,100 car models, 75 of which makes their world premieres in the auto show. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

“Horst Ludwig Wessel (October 9, 1907 – February 23, 1930) was a German Nazi activist who was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1930. He was the author of the lyrics to the song “Die Fahne hoch” (“The Flag On High”), usually known as Horst-Wessel-Lied (“The Horst Wessel Song”), which became the Nazi Party anthem and, de facto, Germany's co-national anthem from 1933 to 1945”. – Wikipedia

Photo: German Nazi activist Horst Wessel (left) at the head of a parade of S.A. stormtroopers, or “brownshirts”, in Nuremberg, Germany, 1929. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“Huangguoshu Waterfall, also known as Yellow Fruit Tree Waterfall, is one of the largest waterfalls in China and East Asia located on the Baihe River in Anshun, Guizhou Province. It is 77.8 m (255 ft) high and 101 m (331 ft) wide. The main waterfall is 67 m (220 ft) high and 83.3 m (273 ft) wide”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The Miao ethnic minority women rest in front of Huangguoshu Cataract, Asia's largest waterfall, on September 13, 2011 in Anshun city of Guizhou Province, China. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)