La Domenica del Corriere of August 22–29, 1915, an illustrated weekly supplement to Corriere della Sera, published in Milan, Italy. The front and back covers are full-page illustrations by the great Italian illustrator Achille Beltrame. This back cover is an illustration of Italian author, pilot, soldier, and self-promoter Gabriele d'Annunzio dropping streamers in the colors of the Italian flag and bearing patriotic massages over Trieste, Austria-Hungary, a city with a large ethnic Italian population.
Il volo di d'Annunzio su Trieste. Il Poeta lancia patriottici messaggi ai nostri fratelli: 'La fine del vostro martirio è prossima!'The flight of d'Annunzio over Trieste. The Poet launches patriotic messages to our brothers: 'The end of your martyrdom is near!'(Disegno de A. Beltrame).
"This ridiculous plan [to cross the Timavo River on plank walkways, capture Hill 28, advance across two kilometres of open ground to seize the castle in Duino, and raise a huge Italian flag] was partly conceived by a 54-year-old captain in the Novara Lancers — none other than Gabriele D'Annunzio. This was Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italy's celebrity bard and all-round decadent. Sharing the Futurists' fascination with aeroplanes, he had made daring flights over Austrian territory. He also milked events for personal publicity, lobbying far and wide for medals. He admired Cadorna, composing odes in his honour. Unofficially, many in the army found him comical and even hateful."
The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo, which Italian commander in chief Luigi Cadorna had begun with the heaviest bombardment yet on the Italian front, had already failed when the plan of the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio on the Timavo River, one of the last actions of the campaign, was executed. A powerful speaker and self-promoter, D'Annunzio's performances included dropping leaflets over Vienna that proclaimed the imminent triumph of Italy over Austria-Hungary and Germany. In his Letters, Anglo-American writer Henry James refers to D'Annunzio as 'that particular rotten little skunk' while admiring one of his recent poems. Futurism was an Italian art movement that celebrated the modern world, its technology, speed, and disruption.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 255, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009
1917-05-28, 1917, May, Gabriele D'Annunzio, D'Annunzio, Tenth Battle of the Isonzo, Tenth Isonzo, Futurism
