From the moment the sirens first signaled the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war, TIME correspondents have been ranging far across the Middle East, covering military action and political maneuvering in the warring nations both for our regular stories and for this week's special section. Correspondent William Marmon drove from Jerusalem to the Sinai Peninsula and sent eyewitness reports of the fighting from an Israeli position less than five miles from the Suez Canal. He returned to Jerusalem at night, "riding in darkness for hours because of the danger of air attacks." As a result of the blackout, there were such terrible accidents along the way, he says, "that I wondered if Egyptian air strikes would have been any more destructive."

On the other side of the lines, Rome Correspondent Wilton Wynn reached Cairo after an 800-mile, cross-desert taxi ride from Benghazi and was one of 14 newsmen allowed to move up to the Sinai front. "After traveling about 25 miles northward along the front," he reports, "our convoy came to a halt when an artillery shell exploded 300 yds. away. Then an Israeli Skyhawk streaked past. Later newsmen saw smoke rising from what they thought was a bomb hit. But the unit commander said it was the plane, which had been shot down." Diplomatic Editor Jerrold Schecter, usually based in Washington, arrived in Benghazi two days after Wynn, followed the same trail across the desert and later joined Wynn in Cairo, where both have been covering President Sadat's activities and the Egyptian situation.

Beirut-based Karsten Prager, whose beat normally includes much of the Arab world, moved to the Syrian side of the war to report from Damascus, while Rome Bureau Chief Jordan Bonfante took up temporary station in Beirut.

Jerusalem Correspondent Marlin Levin crossed the Golan Heights into Syria to report on the fighting along the El Quneitra-Damascus road and narrowly missed stepping on an anti-personnel bomb. Marsh Clark temporarily left his post as New York bureau chief and returned to Jerusalem, where he headed our bureau from 1970 to 1972, to cover developments in the Israeli capital. Rounding out TIME'S coverage in the Middle East is London Correspondent William McWhirter, who has been reporting from Jordan since the day King Hussein ordered his troops to mobilize.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.