Seventy years on from the fall of Singapore in World War Two - a memorial service to honour the dead.

From 1942 to 1945, Singapore was a battleground after Japan occupied the island as part of its campaign to expand its empire.

Caught in the crossfire were tens of thousands of Allied soldiers and civilians.

Most of the survivors of the attacks were arrested, detained and used for forced labour.

A group of Australians who were prisoners of war in Singapore returned to remember those dark days.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) WAR VETERAN AND FORMER POW AT CHANGI PRISON, PETER DEMOPOULOS:

"I just think the waste of life, when you look around the cemetery most of our boys were 18, 19, 20; it brings back memories, what a waste of life."

SOUNDBITE (English) WAR VETERAN AND FORMER POW AT CHANGI PRISON, GEORGE ROBERT SMITH:

"You've got to forget it anyway that's the thing is it, you're not going to try to think about it all the time, you'll go mad."

A separate civilian ceremony was also held at Singapore's Beach Road War Memorial to remember the civilians victims of the war and Japanese occupation.

Simon Hanna, Reuters.