Born in Bad Harzburg, Wessling grew up in the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.

Flying with this wing, Wessling claimed his first aerial victory on 30 June 1941 on the Western Front over a Royal Air Force fighter aircraft.

In June 1941, his unit was transferred east and fought in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Wessling, the son of a laborer in a quarry, was born on 23 September 1913 in Bad Harzburg in the Duchy of Brunswick of the German Empire.

Trained as a pilot with the German Air Sports Association (Deutscher Luftsportverband), he joined the Luftwaffe in 1937, serving in the military reserve.

[1] World War II in Europe began on Friday 1 September 1939, when German forces invaded Poland.

[4] The Gruppe had been newly created on 1 March at the airfield in Jena-Rödingen as part of the Luftwaffe expansion plan of 11 October 1939.

Gruppe was withdrawn from the English Channel and relocated to Dortmund Airfield for a brief period of rest, replenishment and maintenance overhaul.

[11] RAF Fighter Command lost 18 Spitfires destroyed or damaged to all causes in the days air battles.

[12] In November 1940, the group commander, Balthasar, had to be sent to a hospital as his injury sustained on 4 September had still not fully healed.

An event which the Nazi propaganda exploited and recorded for Die Deutsche Wochenschau, a newsreel series released in the cinemas.

Staffel was passed to Oberleutnant Viktor Bauer before the Gruppe continued their journey to Breslau-Schöngarten Airfield, present-day Wrocław Airport.

These air elements supported Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt's Heeresgruppe Süd (Army Group South), with the objective of capturing Ukraine and its capital Kiev.

[23] Wessling claimed his next aerial victories in March 1942 while German forces were fighting in the Demyansk Pocket, an area southeast of Lake Ilmen.

[26] The Staffel was then under command of Oberleutnant Alfons Raich and subordinated to I. Gruppe headed by Hauptmann Georg Michalek and was based at Kharkov-Rogan airfield, southeast of Kharkov.

[27] On 21 July, Wessling was shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft artillery behind enemy lines south of Belayev.

He was then transferred to Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost, specialized training unit for new fighter pilots destined for the Eastern Front, as an instructor.

[33] The Gruppe flew its first combat missions on 2 July when a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) heavy bomber formation was detected heading for Taranto.

During the aerial battle over the Gulf of Taranto, Wessling claimed two Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers shot down.

Gruppe flew multiple combat missions to the area of Syracuse on the southern Sicilian coast.

The Gruppe was then temporarily led by Hauptmann Heinz Lang before the position was passed to Major Friedrich-Karl Müller on 26 February.

[43] Following the USAAF offensive dubbed "Big Week", the Gruppe moved to Salzwedel in central Germany now fighting in Defense of the Reich.

The Sturmstaffel was an experimental unit flying the so-called Sturmböcke (battering ram), up-gunned Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-7 and A-8 aircraft, as a means to combat the USAAF heavy bombers.

[44] The USAAF Eighth Air Force targeted Braunschweig and airfields at Münster and Osnabrück on 23 March.

Units of JG 3 intercepted the USAAF bombers of the 1st Bombardment Division in the area north of Hamm in a frontal attack.

During this engagement, Wessling was credited with shooting a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and a P-38 escort fighter.

Defending against this attack, Wessling claimed a B-17 bomber and a North American P-51 Mustang escort fighter over the combat area west and south of Verden an der Aller.

[53] That day, Wessling was killed in action when his Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 412052) was shot down in aerial combat near Eschwege.

[54] He had managed to make an emergency landing and had just escaped from his burning aircraft when he was shot by strafing P-51 fighters.

[60] Spick also lists Wessling with 83 aerial victories claimed in an unknown number of combat missions.