Major Gabriele d'Annunzio's peaceful air raid on Vienna on Friday
week was a beau geste,like the flight of Lieutenant Marchal over Berlin in 1916, which will become legendary. Major d'Annunzio, in command of eight Italian aeroplanes, flew to Vienna and back—a distance of six hundred and twenty miles—in seven hours less ten minutes. The airmen hovered over the city, at a height of about half-a-mile, dropping leaflets. "We could drop tons of bombs," said the leaflets to the people of Vienna, "but we only drop a greeting to the three colours, the three colours of liberty." The Austrians made no attempt to interfere with the airmen, who turned homeward when they had distributed their literary explosives. One Italian had to descend, owing to engine trouble, near Wiener Neustadt. The other seven reached their aerodrome in time for lunch. Some matter-of-fact people will hastily condemn it as a foolhardy enterprise. But the moral effect of such a raid on the Viennese, who are suffering greatly from lack of food and the despondency of defeat, may be very far-reaehing.
Previous page
