Belgium's elected government fled the occupation, relocating to France and then London, where it established the Belgian government in exile under Hubert Pierlot and the Free Belgian Forces under Victor van Strydonck de Burkel. Belgian forces participated in the D-Day campaign, the Italian Campaign, the landings on Walcheren Island, and the Battle of the Atlantic. Britain and the United States targeted occupied Belgium with strategic bombing, which caused many civilian casualties. The Liberation of Belgium began in September 1944 when Allied forces, including Free Belgians, entered the country. German troops counterattacked in December with the Ardennes Offensive; the failure of that offensive forced all German troops out of Belgium by February 1945. German V-bomb attacks continued until the end of the war.