Gabriele D'Annunzio in an Ansaldo SVA-9 2-seater

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 The Ansaldo SVA (named for Savoia-Verduzio- Ansaldo) was a family of Italian reconnaissance biplane aircraft of World War I and the decade after. Originally conceived as a fighter, the SVA was found inadequate for that role. Nevertheless, its ...

aircraft from his team, the 87ma ''squadriglia'' (squadron) called ''La Serenissima'' (Venice) all bearing the

Lion of St Mark The Lion of Saint Mark, representing Mark the Evangelist, pictured in the form of a winged lion, is an aspect of the Tetramorph. On the pinnacle of St Mark's Cathedral he is depicted as holding a Bible, and surmounting a golden lion which is ...

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 Due Carrare is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about southwest of Venice and about south of Padua. This municipality is the result of the merging of two different municipalities (''Carr ...

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 Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

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 national flag of Italy ( it, Bandiera d'Italia, ), often referred to in Italian as ''il Tricolore'' ( en, the Tricolour, ) is a tricolour (flag), tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical Pale (heraldry), pales of green, white and red, ...

). The text was written by D'Annunzio himself and was not translated into

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

. 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 Ferdinando Martini (30 July 1840 – 24 April 1928) was an Italian writer and politician. He was governor of Eritrea for from late 1897 to early 1907. Biography Born in Florence, he worked as journalist and writer. He collaborated with '' Il ...

quipped: "Now he acts but does not write." They also dropped 350,000 leaflets written by author

Ugo Ojetti Ugo Ojetti (15 July 1871 – 1 January 1946) was an Italy, Italian journalist-commentator and author. He wrote prolifically on a wide range of topics. His output also includes short stories and at least seven novels. Nevertheless, during his ...

, which were translated into German: Volantinodann

References

{{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

See also

References