The Flight over Vienna was an air raid during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

undertaken by Italian poet and nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio on 9 August 1918. 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 Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

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 l ...

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 2 August 1918, but the aircraft returned due to heavy fog. The second try, on 8 August 1918, was cancelled due to strong wind, while the last one, on 9 August 1918, 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 flag of Italy (, ), often referred to as The Tricolour (, ), is a flag featuring three equally sized vertical pales of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side, as defined by Article 12 of the Constitution of the Italian Repub ...

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

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

. It read: Previously, critics of D'Annunzio had said: "He writes but does not act." Because D'Annunzio's Italian text was considered not translatable into German, Ferdinando Martini quipped: "Now he acts but does not write." In reality, they also dropped 350,000 leaflets written by author

Ugo Ojetti Ugo Ojetti (15 July 1871 – 1 January 1946) was an 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 later ...

, 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 Aviation in World War I Gabriele D'Annunzio Italy in World War I Psychological warfare World War I propaganda Military history of Vienna

See also

References