Across the Carnic Alps, the self-styled warrior-poet Gabriele d'Annunzio, flew with eleven Ansaldo biplanes of the 87a Squadriglia, in a dramatic long-distance bombing raid on Vienna, August 9, 1918. They arrived over the ancient capital of the Hapsburgs and rained down a lethal storm of ... leaflets ... encouraging the Viennese to go on strike.
The S.V.A. 5 was a fairly standard-looking biplane, its most
recognizable features being the "W" shaped wing struts and the boxy,
tapered fuselage that flattened out and practically merged with the
tail fin. Powered by a 220-hp SPA 6A engine, it was fast enough and
capable enough to take on multiple roles: bombing, reconnaissance, and
fighting. It was of conventional fabric-covered wood
construction.
Early Italian biplanes, such as the Savola-Pomillo, were
unsuccessful. In 1916, designers Umberto Savola, Rodolfo
Verduzio, and Celestino Rosatelli started from scratch, and laid out a
new aircraft. Societa Ansaldo of Genoa and Turin, "Ansaldo," got the
contract to build the planes and started in the prototype in December,
1916. After modifications to the radiator and the tail, the Ansaldo's
workers at the Borzoli Mare factory, under director Brezzi, finished
the first machine in March, 1917.
Sgt. Mario Stoppani must have been a brave man, for on March 19, 1917,
he test-flew the prototype SVA at Grosseto. Without modern testing and
development procedures and simulations, he must have simply started up
the engine, taxied down the field, and took off, hoping for the best.
Presumably his first flight was a short one, and in months that
followed, more flights identified defects, even while the Ansaldo
plants at Borzoli and Bolzaneto delivered more planes. In 1917,
pilots in fighter training schools and the front line found the SVA to
have poor maneuverability, but faster than other biplanes like the
Hanriot HD.1 and SPAD VII pursuit planes. Thus, in early 1918 it was
decided to use the SVA on reconnaissance and bombing missions, but not
as a dogfighter. With plenty of lift (for extra fuel) and the speed to
evade Austrian fighters, the SVA was well-suited to long-distance
observation work.
On February 28, 1918, four SVAs from the Italian Prima Sezione
(First Section) took off from Ponter San Pietro. They included three
airplanes carrying two 25-kg (55-1b) bombs each and one equipped with
aerial cameras. Pilots Capts. Palli and Palma di Cesnola, Lieut. Orsini
and Sgt. Arrigoni flew 250-km (155-miles) over the Alps, reaching
Innsbruck, where they dropped their bombs and shot up the train yards.
After three hours' flight they were back at their base.
A dedicated aerial reconnaissance unit, the Venice-based 87a
Squadriglia, 'La Serenissima,' displaying the Lion of St. Mark on
its SVA's, was established in early 1918. This squadron undertook many
other long flights along Alpine valleys: Val di Non, Val d'Adige,
Passo della Mendola and Valsugana. On May 21, 1918, Two SVAs piloted by
Arturo Ferrarin and Antonio Locatelli flew to the German Zeppelin
base at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, photographed the hangars and
returned safely to their base, a distance of 440 miles. In the next
month, Locatelli made a 562-mile round trip to Zagreb.
The most famous SVA raid took place in August, when eight S.V.A.s flew
to Vienna and back, a journey of 625 miles. The raid was the brainchild
of Gabriele d'Annunzio, a rather extravagant, self-styled warrior-poet.
Originally, d'Annunzio favored three-engine Caproni heavy bombers, but
the Italian high command was unwilling to risk the large aircraft on
such a Quixotic misson. SVA two-seaters, another possibility, did not
have the endurance for a seven hour flight. But the one-seater SVA 5's
did have the range and d'Annunzio organized the raid around them. One
two-seater SVA 9, was fitted with an extra 66-gallon fuel tank.
Eleven modified SVAs took off from San Pelagio early on August 9, 1918.
Eight airplanes, piloted by Palli (with d'Annunzio in back), Locatelli,
Massoni, Allegri, Censi, Sarti, Granzarolo and Finzi, made it to
Vienna. Sarti was forced to make an emergency landing in enemy
territory, while
the others went on to take reconnaissance photographs of Vienna and to
toss out propaganda leaflets which d'Annunzio had written in his
customary high-flown prose.
On the morning of the 9th, at 5:50, from the airfield at Saint Pelagio
(Treviso) eleven machines took off: a two-seater with the pilot Captain
Palli and Gabriel d' Annunzio, and ten single-seaters, with Locatelli,
Allegros, Censi, Finzi, Massone, Granzarolo, Sarti, Ferrarin, Masprone
and Contratti. Ferrarin, Masprone and Contratti had to land soon after
take-off.
Sarti was forced to land in enemy country, near Wiener-Neustadt. The
other seven reached on Vienna at 9:20 and dropped 50,000 pamphlets,
written by d'Annunzio himself:
more to come on the Ansaldo SVA
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