Flight over Vienna


The Flight over Vienna was an air raid during World War I undertaken by Italian poet and nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio on 9 August 1918. With 11 Ansaldo S.V.A. from his team, the 87ma squadriglia called La Serenissima all bearing the Lion of St Mark painted on their fuselage sides as the squadron's insignia, he flew for over 1,200 km in a round trip from the squadron's military airfield in Due Carrare to Vienna 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 trial was attempted on the 2 August 1918, but the aircraft returned due to heavy fog. The second trial, on 8 August 1918, was cancelled due to strong wind, while the last one, on 9 August, was successful.
They flew over Vienna and dropped 50,000 leaflets on a three-colored card. They were written by D'Annunzio himself and were not translated into German. They 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 :it:Ugo Ojetti|Ugo Ojetti, which were translated into German: