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The Flight over Vienna was an air raid during 
The Flight over Vienna was an air raid during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
undertaken by Italian poet and nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio on . With 11 Ansaldo SVA aircraft from his team, the 87ma ''squadriglia'' (squadron) called ''La Serenissima'' (Venice) all bearing the Lion of St Mark painted on their fuselage sides as the squadron's insignia, he flew for over in a round trip from the squadron's military airfield in Due Carrare to Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
to drop thousands of propaganda leaflets.
The action was planned the year before but technical problems, such as the fuel capacity of the planes, delayed it.
The first try was attempted on the , but the aircraft returned due to heavy fog. The second try, on , was cancelled due to strong wind, while the last one, on , was successful.
They flew over Vienna and dropped 50,000 leaflets on a three-colored card (green, white, and red: the colors of the Italian flag). The text was written by D'Annunzio himself and was not translated into German. It read:
Previously, critics of D'Annunzio had said: "He writes but does not act." Because D'Annunzio's Italian text was considered ineffectual and not translatable into German, Ferdinando Martini quipped: "Now he acts but does not write."
They also dropped 350,000 leaflets written by author Ugo Ojetti, which were translated into German:
See also
* Aircraft of Nuremberg * Propaganda and censorship in Italy during the First World War * Rome-Tokyo RaidReferences
{{Wwi-air 1910s in Vienna 1918 in Italy Aerial operations and battles of World War I August 1918 events Aviation in World War I Gabriele D'Annunzio Italy in World War I Psychological warfare World War I propaganda