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 liberties,

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.

Italian propaganda leaflet dropped over Vienna on the 9th of August, 1918.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music to the history of the 20th century. Episode 165. You die waiting for it.

The year 1917 had been a difficult one for Austria-Hungary, as we've already seen.

The turnip winter hit Austria at least as hard as Germany.

The old emperor passed on in November 1916 to be succeeded by the 29-year-old Kaiser Carl,

who inherited all the nationalities problems that had festered for decades under his predecessor,

as well as the new problems caused by wartime shortages and unrest. Then came the Russian Revolution. The new Kaiser and his ministers watched the centuries-old

Russian Empire overthrown overnight, and the sight of it concentrated their minds wonderfully. By the spring of

1917, the new emperor and his ministers had come face to face with some terrible truths.

...