Happy Lunar New Year!

I wish you all the very best for the Year of the Rat. You can find out more about the Rat and the Lunar New Year in Vietnam here. If, like me, you were born in a ‘Rat Year’ you are likely to be approachable and optimistic, at ease and not argumentative. You want to be liked and are happy to be helped by others. Apparently we ‘Rats’ have the power of prediction, observation, and acute vision. I’m very short-sighted so clearly something wrong!

This is an Italian produced postcard, which I obtained from the inevitable eBay. Sadly there is no message on the back, but this tells us – in Italian, French and English – that the picture shows: Annamite Soldiers carrying Water. So these are French Indo-Chinese Marine Infantry (Tirailleurs indochinois) of either the 1st or 2nd Battalion Tirailleurs Annamites, probably at their camp outside Salonika, possibly soon after their arrival in May 1916. The photo was taken by Henri Manuel and the postcard was produced by IPA CT Autocromo.