'Viennesi!' tricolour leaflet dropped over Vienna in D'Annunzio's flight, 9 August 1918
Italian text printed over a green, white and red flag whose white band carries the red Savoy shield with its white cross. It offers the Viennese 'a greeting of three colours, the three colours of liberty' instead of bombs, and tells them 'all the world has turned against you'. The flag is made the carrier of the word liberty, and the claim of universal opposition stands in for argument.
- Date
- August 9, 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Italian Army air squadron led by Gabriele D'Annunzio (text by Ugo Ojetti), Kingdom of Italy
- Country
- Kingdom of Italy
- Medium
- Leaflet
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Orlando Government
- Audience
- Enemy civilians
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- World War I
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (scan from the Burzagli family private archive, Italy), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (printed and dropped 1918, before 1931; Commons PD-old and PD-US-expired)
Text by Ugo Ojetti per Commons; leaflet dropped over Vienna 9 August 1918; scan by Emiliano Burzagli (Burzagli family archive). Via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
VIENNESI! Imparate a conoscere gli italiani. Noi voliamo su Vienna, potremmo lanciare bombe a tonnellate. Non vi lanciamo che un saluto a tre colori: i tre colori della libertà. Noi italiani non facciamo la guerra ai bambini, ai vecchi, alle donne. Noi facciamo la guerra al vostro governo nemico delle libertà nazionali, al vostro cieco testardo crudele governo che non sa darvi nè pace nè pane, e vi nutre d'odio e d'illusioni. VIENNESI! Voi avete fama d'essere intelligenti. Ma perchè vi siete messa l'uniforme prussiana? Ormai, lo vedete, tutto il mondo s'è volto contro di voi. Volete continuare la guerra? Continuatela. E' il vostro suicidio. Che sperate? La vittoria decisiva promessavi dai generali prussiani? La loro vittoria decisiva è come il pane dell'Ucraina: Si muore aspettandola. POPOLO DI VIENNA, pensa ai tuoi casi. Svégliati! VIVA LA LIBERTÀ! VIVA L'ITALIA! VIVA L'INTESA! 128
VIENNESE! Learn to know the Italians. We are flying over Vienna; we could drop bombs by the ton. We throw you only a greeting in three colours: the three colours of liberty. We Italians do not make war on children, on the old, on women. We make war on your government, enemy of national liberties, your blind, stubborn, cruel government that cannot give you either peace or bread, and feeds you on hatred and illusions. VIENNESE! You have a reputation for being intelligent. But why have you put on the Prussian uniform? By now, you see it, the whole world has turned against you. Do you want to go on with the war? Go on with it. It is your suicide. What do you hope for? The decisive victory promised you by the Prussian generals? Their decisive victory is like the bread of Ukraine: one dies waiting for it. PEOPLE OF VIENNA, think of your own affairs. Wake up! LONG LIVE LIBERTY! LONG LIVE ITALY! LONG LIVE THE ENTENTE! 128
Text is printed in black over the green and red bands of the flag, which lowers contrast in places, but every word is legible. The accent in 'Svégliati' and the spellings 'nè' and 'E'' are as printed. The final '128' is a small figure at the lower right, not part of the text.
