Description
Mr. Keys describes some of the soldiers in 12 Platoon.
Herman C. Keys
Mr. Keys was born on September 15, 1916. He grew up in Balcarres, Saskatchewan which is sixty miles east of Regina. Mr. Keys started school at the age of six and quit in grade ten, at which time he went to Ontario to find work. His father owned a hotel which he sold before Mr. Keys was born. He also owned two farms and later became a cattle buyer. He died when Mr. Keys was twelve. His mother came from England and was a housekeeper for his father. Mr. Keys had a brother, named Mel and a sister. Mel went into action with Mr. Keys in Dieppe. Mel was wounded but survived the war. Mr. Keys joined the South Saskatchewan Regiment as a rifleman and was a member of the merchant marine for three years prior to enlisting.
Transcript
I remember one time we were all sleeping in a church hall one night; we were glad, it was really wet out and we were sleeping in a row and this guy Casey Arnold and his brother; we were all in 12 Platoon and...12 Platoon or "B" Company had the most brothers of any company in the battalion and I had my brother Mel with me there. He was, by this time he was a full corporal and I was a lance corporal, a one-striper. But we were sleeping on the floor and this Casey Arnold, oh he was a character, really. He grabbed his rifle and he says, "I'm a rootin' tootin' six- gun shootin' cowboy from Kalamazoo, Michigan." Wham, wham, wham, like that, fired, and this old building had these steel rods that were holding the sides in and would you believe that one of those 303s hit that rod and ricocheted and hit his brother in the forehead. It was a kinda spent piece of metal. I always remembered that. Casey Arnold his brother was named Jackie. Both of them survived the Dieppe raid and both were POW's, and survived and I've met them at reunions long after the war.