broadcast to the public took place in 1927, and the first radio station, Radio Saint-Denis, went on the air in 1929. In 1938, the old harbor of Le Barachois was filled to create a large square in order to host a large colonial exhibition. On April 10, 1940, the last public execution in Réunion took place at dawn on that square at the Barachois: two men were guillotined for the savage murder of a 78 year-old female shopkeeper in 1937. In June 1940, after the Fall of France, governor decided to declare his loyalty to Marshal Pétain, unlike the French colonial governors in the South Pacific surrounded by British territories, who chose to rally de Gaulle's Free French, and he cut all communications with Mauritius. The British established a naval blockade of Réunion which led to severe food shortages and rationing. The governor pushed local authorities to follow Vichy France policies. In Saint-Denis, the square of Barachois was renamed square Marshal Pétain by the municipal council in February 1941. A Pétain Propaganda Committee was created in Saint-Denis in December 1941, as well as a Marshal Pétain Guard made up of 800 followers of the Révolution nationale. At the same time, an underground resistance movement started to organize itself. After the successful British landing in Vichy-held Madagascar, and faced with the impossibility to defend Réunion's coastline, governor Aubert on September 27, 1942 decided to declare Saint-Denis an open city and retreat to Hell-Bourg, in the interior of the island. On November 28, the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL) destroyer Léopard, sailing from Mauritius, arrived off Saint-Denis and landed troops unopposed. These troops captured the city and established a Free French governor. Governor Aubert surrendered to the Free French governor on November 30, thus completing the Liberation of Réunion. All Vichy policies enacted under governor Aubert were reversed in late 1942 and in 1943. Urban expansion (1940s-1970s) After World War II, Saint-Denis entered a new period of population growth and urban development. In February 1945, Air France opened an air route between Paris and Saint-Denis, the first air route linking Réunion with metropolitan France: operated once a week, it took 5 days and 14 stopovers to reach Paris from Saint-Denis. In June 1946, the newer Gillot airfield (now Roland Garros Airport, the international airport of Réunion) was inaugurated east of Saint-Denis's city center, in the neighboring commune of Sainte-Marie. In March 1946,