Women in traditional costumes wait for a statue of the El Carmen Virgin to be carried into the sea during a procession in Malaga July 16, 2015. Many seaside towns celebrate the annual feast of the El Carmen Virgin, who is worshipped as the patron saint of sailors. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

Comandos de Salvamento rescuers Maria Martinez (L) and Ana Chichilla attend to a wounded homeless man in San Salvador, El Salvador July 16, 2016. The man was attacked with a machete by suspected gang members. In 2015, El Salvador registered a record 103 homicides per 100,000 habitants, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world outside a war zone. But for many young people who have few chances to distance themselves from rivalries between so-called maras in their schools and neighbourhoods, a civil-society organisation called the Comandos de Salvamento, or Rescue Corps, has been a refuge. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

A reveller takes part in the battle of “Enfarinats”, a flour fight in celebration of the Els Enfarinats festival on December 28, 2015 in Ibi, Spain. Citizens of Ibi annually celebrate the festival with a battle using flour, eggs and firecrackers. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

Indigenous dancers participate in a traditional healing ceremony for the mother earth at El Salvador del Mundo Square in San Salvador, December 10, 2014. Salvadorean indigenous organizations participated in a ceremony to ask for solutions to stop climate change and respect planet earth as the U.N. Climate Change Conference COP 20 is bring held in Peru. The two-week long United Nations climate summit opened on December 1 in Lima, with experts and analysts from around the world gathering to discuss melting glaciers and extreme weather patterns. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

A Salvadorean clown going by the name of “Almohadita” poses during National Clown Day celebrations at Beethoven Square in San Salvador December 3, 2014. The Salvadorean congress declared the second Wednesday of December as National Clown Day to honour all Salvadorean clowns in their efforts to bring fun to the country, reported local media. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

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)

It’s a classic tale of dictatorship gone wrong and the fight for freedom. Like in any good battle, there’s fire, albeit from firecrackers, but the ammunition in this one is – flour. It takes place in a Hemingway-esque Spanish village. The battle of “Enfarinats” in celebration of the Els Enfarinats festival, rages on on December 28, 2012 in Ibi, Spain. Citizens of Ibi annually celebrate the festival with a fight using flour, eggs and firecrackers. The battle takes place between two groups, a group of married men called “Els Enfarinats” who take the control of the village for one day pronouncing a number of ridiculous laws and fining the citizens that infringe them and a group called “La Oposicio” who try to restore order. At the end of the day the money collected from the fines is donated to charitable causes in the village. The festival has been celebrated since 1981 after the town of Ibi recovered the tradition but the origins remain unknown.

Photo: A Reveller smokes during the battle of “Enfarinats”, a flour fight in celebration of the Els Enfarinats festival. (Photo by David Ramos)

An Egyptian actress working at the Pharaonic Village simulates ancient agriculture scenes during a show marking Sham el-Nessim, or “smelling the breeze”, in Giza, Egypt, Monday, April 13, 2015. The holiday signifies the arrival of Spring, a uniquely Egyptian tradition practiced since the days of the Pharaohs. (Photo by Amr Nabil/AP Photo)