Royal Australian Engineers will form part of the catafalque party on Saturday for the ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Kapooka Tragedy.

The Recruit Battalion officers gathered at the memorial site on Friday morning to rehearse the tribute to their World War II-era comrades who were training to be sappers.

On the afternoon of May 21, 1945 a group of trainees and their instructors entered an underground dugout for a demonstration on how to prepare explosives.

Minutes after they arrived at 2.30pm, some or all of the 50 kilograms of explosives kept in the dugout detonated, killing 24 men instantly and causing fatal injuries to another two.

Just one man in the dugout survived after been embedded in the dugout wall by the force of the blast.

Warrant Officer Class One and Kapooka Recruit Training Battalion Regimental Sergeant Major, Damien Woolfe said the effects of the tragedy still lasted today through strengthening the links between Wagga and the Kapooka army base.

"We continue to hold this ceremony as a memorial to the 26 soldiers that lost their lives and also it's a real reflection and it's about the link between the community and Kapooka that has always existed," he said.

"The turnout at the funeral after the tragedy happened in 1945; that link between the community and Kapooka still exists to this day. The staff lived in the community back then just as we do now.

"It's a continuance of that link with the community that we think is important and the community tells us is important as well."

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Back in 1945, three days after the tragedy, half of Wagga's population lined the streets to pay their respects to the sappers as the funeral procession passed.

Warrant Officer Woolfe said the tragedy happened just a few months before the end of World War II and was still the army's worst training accident on record.

"We take great pride in making sure the training that we do is the safest it can be while also being the best that it can be," he said.

"That's exactly what they were trying to do back in 1945 as they were in conflict. We are not in the same situation now but we are still trying to do the same realistic training as safe as possible, but there are always risks."

The memorial service will be held at 2pm on Saturday and is open to the public at the Kapooka Tragedy memorial site on Kapooka Road, about 2.4 kilometres south of the Sturt Highway intersection.

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