# Flight over Vienna > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Flight_over_Vienna > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Flight_over_Vienna.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_over_Vienna > Source revision: 1341570004 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Air raid during World War I This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Flight over Vienna" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Gabriele D'Annunzio in the front seat of an Ansaldo SVA-9 before the flight. [Lion of St. Mark](/source/Lion_of_St._Mark) displayed on most of the [Ansaldo SVA](/source/Ansaldo_SVA) aircraft on the raid Italian leaflets dropped over the center of Vienna ([St. Stephen's Cathedral](/source/St._Stephen's_Cathedral%2C_Vienna) is visible in the upper right corner with the [Graben](/source/Graben%2C_Vienna) street below) The **Flight over Vienna** was an air raid during [World War I](/source/World_War_I) undertaken by Italian poet and nationalist [Gabriele D'Annunzio](/source/Gabriele_D'Annunzio) on 9 August 1918. With 11 [Ansaldo SVA](/source/Ansaldo_SVA) aircraft from his team, the 87ma *squadriglia* (squadron) called *La Serenissima* (Venice) all bearing the [Lion of St Mark](/source/Lion_of_St_Mark) painted on their fuselage sides as the squadron's insignia, he flew for over 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) in a round trip from the squadron's military airfield in [Due Carrare](/source/Due_Carrare) to [Vienna](/source/Vienna) to drop thousands of [propaganda](/source/Propaganda) [leaflets](/source/Leaflet_(information)).[1] The action was planned the year before but technical problems, such as the [fuel capacity](/source/Range_(aeronautics)) 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](/source/Airborne_leaflet_propaganda) on a three-colored card (green, white, and red: the colors of the [Italian flag](/source/Italian_flag)). The text was written by D'Annunzio himself and was not translated into [German](/source/German_language). It read: On this August morning, while the fourth year of your desperate convulsion comes to an end and luminously begins the year of our full power, suddenly there appears the three-color wing as an indication of the destiny that is turning. Destiny turns. It turns towards us with an iron certainty. The hour of that Germany that thrashes you, and humiliates you, and infects you is now forever passed. Your hour is passed. As our faith was the strongest, behold how our will prevails and will prevail until the end. The victorious combatants of Piave, the victorious combatants of Marne feel it, they know it, with an ecstasy that multiplies the impetus. But if the impetus were not enough, the number would be; and this is said for those that try fighting ten against one. The Atlantic is a path already closing, and it's a heroic path, as demonstrated by the new chasers who coloured the Ourcq with German blood. On the wind of victory that rises from freedom's rivers, we didn't come except for the joy of the daring, we didn't come except to prove what we could venture and do whenever we want, in an hour of our choice. The rumble of the young Italian wing does not sound like the one of the funereal bronze, in the morning sky. Nevertheless the joyful boldness suspends between Saint Stephen and the Graben an irrevocable sentence, o Viennese. Long live Italy![2] 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](/source/Ferdinando_Martini) quipped: "Now he acts but does not write." In reality, they also dropped 350,000 leaflets written by author [Ugo Ojetti](/source/Ugo_Ojetti), which were translated into German: VIENNESE! Learn to know the Italians. We are flying over Vienna; we could drop tons of bombs. All we are dropping on you is a greeting of three colors: the three colors of liberty. We Italians do not make war on children, on old people, on women. We are making war on your government, the enemy of national liberty, on your blind, stubborn, cruel government that can give you neither peace nor bread, and feeds you hatred and illusions. VIENNESE! You are famous for being intelligent. But why have you put on the Prussian uniform? By now, you see, the whole world has turned against you. You want to continue the war? Continue it; it's your suicide. What do you hope for? The decisive victory promised to you by the Prussian generals? Their decisive victory is like the bread of Ukraine: You die waiting for it. PEOPLE OF VIENNA, think of your own fates. Wake up! LONG LIVE LIBERTY! LONG LIVE ITALY! LONG LIVE THE [ENTENTE](/source/Allies_of_World_War_I)! In 1933, Gauro Ambrosi, who belonged to the *[Aeropittura](/source/Aeropittura)* movement within futurism, made a painting in celebration of the flight.[3][4] ## See also - [Aircraft of Nuremberg](/source/Aircraft_of_Nuremberg) - [Propaganda and censorship in Italy during the First World War](/source/Propaganda_and_censorship_in_Italy_during_the_First_World_War) - [Rome-Tokyo Raid](/source/Rome-Tokyo_Raid) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["9/8/1918 D'Annunzio's flight over Vienna"](https://ww1live.wordpress.com/2018/08/09/vienna/). *World War I Live*. 2018-08-09. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20211206161851/https://ww1live.wordpress.com/2018/08/09/vienna/) from the original on 2021-12-06. Retrieved 2022-03-28. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Gan, Ramat. ["Knights of the Air: Flight over Vienna"](https://web.archive.org/web/20200207203317/http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/knights-of-the-air-flight-over). *Dieselpunks: Dieselpunk + Steampunk Culture*. Archived from [the original](http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/knights-of-the-air-flight-over) on 2020-02-07. Retrieved 2013-03-09. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["The Futuristic Flight over Vienna"](https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-futuristic-flight-over-vienna/kAWxueGQZ73mTw). *Google Arts & Culture*. Retrieved 2026-03-03. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Aeropittura - Gauro Ambrosi"](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/aeropittura-gauro-ambrosi/ZAG7fegVF81OEw). *Google Arts & Culture*. Retrieved 2026-03-03. v t e Gabriele D'Annunzio Novels Il Piacere (1889) Giovanni Episcopo (1891) The Intruder (1892) Il trionfo della morte (1894) The Maidens of the Rocks (1895) The Flame (1900) Forse che sì forse che no (1910) Plays La città morta (1896) La Gioconda (1899) Francesca da Rimini (1902) La figlia di Jorio (1904) La fiaccola sotto il moggio (1905) Poems Halcyon (1903) Works about Tamara (1981 play) D'Annunzio (1987 drama film) The Pike (2013 biography) The Bad Poet (2020 drama film) Miscellaneous Birthplace of Gabriele D'Annunzio Museum La Disperata Flight over Vienna Mutilated victory Italian Regency of Carnaro Rome–Tokyo Raid Vittoriale degli Italiani v t e Aviation in World War I People and aircraft Commanders Aces (accuracy) Aircraft of the Entente Powers Aircraft of the Central Powers Zeppelins Campaigns and battles Strategic bombing German Cuxhaven Bombing of cities Aerial reconnaissance Fokker Scourge Zonguldak Istanbul Flight over Vienna Bloody April Battles Entente Powers air services Belgian Air Component British air services Royal Flying Corps Royal Naval Air Service Royal Air Force Australian Flying Corps Canadian Air Force (1918–1920) French Air Service Imperial Russian Air Service Royal Italian Air Corps Romanian Air Corps Serbian Air Force United States Army Air Service Greek air services Army Air Service Naval Air Service Japanese air services Imperial Japanese Army Air Service Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service Central Powers air services Imperial German Air Service Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops Ottoman Aviation Squadrons Bulgarian Army Aeroplane Section --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Flight over Vienna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_over_Vienna) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_over_Vienna?action=history)). 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