AN ex-corporal who wrote a book based on his experience of a devastating fire in Austria will revisit the scene as a guest of the mayor.

Rough Justice, the debut novel of Keith Watson, 74, is a fictionalised account of a blaze which left four dead and many others with appalling injuries in 1955.

It broke out in a hay-barn where an exhausted battalion from the Middlesex Regiment were bedding down following an week of manoeuvres, allegedly after a senior officer set off a battle simulator as a prank.

The book, which is sold in Waterstones in Enfield Town, brought him to the attention of an Austrian historian Herbert Brandstetter, who wrote about the fire in his account of the history of the Austrian fire service.

Mr Watson said: “He was looking for a survivor of the fire, and we exchanged books and talked about meeting up when I was on holiday in Switzerland and then suddenly it became a formal lunch with all these local digitaries and the local press.”

On September 12, Mr Watson and wife Maureen will meet the mayor, town chronicler, fire chief and, Mr Branstetter for a meal, after paying what is likely to be an emotional trip to the now ruined barn.

Mr Watson said: “Apparently they still talk about the fire. I did go to find it before but wasn’t able to. I want to see it again and the regiment have asked me to take photographs, but it will be an emotional experience.”

Mr Watson, who was born in Edmonton and now lives in Monks Risborough, Bucks, will present the mayor with a hand-painted plaque from his regiment to thank them for the rescue effort.

Mr Branstetter’s book devotes a page to the incident, telling the story of Franz Ornezeder, who rescued 12 soldiers.

His quick thinking rescue, which involved cutting through iron bars and bricks and carrying burned soldiers out of a window and down a makeshift ladder, saw him honoured with an MBE from the Queen.

One of the men Mr Ornezeder rescued was Bruce Grove, who has asked Mr Watson to pass on his "heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the rescue."

In a note to Mr Watson, he says: "I am sorry that I never got to shake his hand. Without his and his colleagues brave actions I would not have survived."

Mr Watson, who obtained records from the army court of inquiry over the cause of the fire, said a military cover up meant the truth was never admitted. The mother of one of the men, who died after going back inside to help, had always been told the fire had been started by a cigarette, despite pleading with the War Office for answers, he said.

He said: “The Austrian CID and fire service were in no doubt about what caused the fire, but the army went to great lengths to prove the battle simulator couldn’t have been set off inside the barn, which it was. When I saw the statements I was incensed. There were contradictory statements made by some of the sergeants and quite a lot of evidence had been destroyed.

"In the book, I leave it to the reader to judge what happened. Now former colleagues who were there are coming up to me at reunions and thanking me for telling the truth."