At the beginning of February 1945, Field Marshal Montgomery’s armies were poised to launch a major offensive to conquer area west of the Lower Rhine. Between Duisburg and Nijmegen/Arnhem the only bridges across the Rhine were those at Wesel. The town was regarded as the most important traffic hub in the Lower Rhine region. The bulk of supplies for the Wehrmacht - which was to defend the area west of the Rhine - had to go through Wesel and over its bridges. Thus, the city of Wesel became an important target. On February 1st, 1945, a force of 139 American bombers attacked the Wesel railroad bridge as well as the road bridge. However, their bombs also hit built-up urban areas. There were fatalities and numerous injured among the civilian population. Faced with the now tangible danger, many Wesel residents left the city. After the start of Allied ground offensive – codenamed „Operation Veritable“ - there were further air raids targeting Wesel. On February 14th, 1945, US bombers attacked and hit Wesel's road bridge (Rheinbabenbrücke), causing some sections to collapse and rendering it inoperable.

February 16th, 1945, came to be known as Wesel’s “Black Friday”. A first wave of 63 US bombers attacked the city at around 11.30 a.m. Their main targets were once again the Rhine bridges but the town was also badly hit. As a result, most of the remaining population fled Wesel. At around 3 PM the sirens sounded the “all-clear”, yet an hour later a major attack by one hundred Royal Air Force bombers began, destroying large parts of the town. The following night fires raged in the ruins, and time-fuse bombs exploded in the rubble. On this day, 322 inhabitants of Wesel lost their lives; an estimated 100 German soldiers also were killed in the bombing.

On Saturday, February 17th, rescue teams struggled to save trapped survivors and to recover the bodies of victims. Patients from the destroyed hospital in Wesel were transported to hospitals in Dinslaken, Walsum, Hamborn and Sterkrade. On this Saturday, the British Air Force was scheduled to attack Wesel again. However, the force of 298 British bombers approaching was ordered to abort the mission as the town lay under a closed low cloud cover, making it impossible to find the target.

On Sunday, February 18th, at around 3 PM another heavy bombing raid by 160 British bombers hit the ruins of Wesel. Rescue teams working in the city were taken by surprised, and 46 people were killed. In the evening, fires raged in the destroyed town, while time-fuse bombs continued to explode. The following day, February 19th, at around 3.30 PM the largely deserted city was targeted by 168 British bombers, which cost another 23 lives. Moreover, 68 US bombers attacked the Wesel railroad bridge, again failing to destroy it. Funerals for the victims in Wesel began on February 19th and continued over the following days and weeks. The police made an effort to identify the dead before these were buried in four mass graves.

On February 24^th, 70 US bombers attacked the Wesel railroad bridge once more. Again, they failed to destroy it. A week later, at the beginning of March 1945, the front line west of the Lower Rhine had moved ever closer to Wesel and its bridges. Across from the city, the Germans defended the so-called “Wesel pocket” and continued to use the still intact railroad bridge to bring up supplies. As German troop movements and columns of vehicles were observed in the city area, 48 British Mosquito light bombers attacked Wesel on March 6th. The British continued these attacks in the night of March 7th, with a force of 87 Royal Air Force bombers bombing the town, followed by another 51 Mosquito light bombers.

Eventually, it was the German Wehrmacht which destroyed the one remaining bridge at Wesel. The railroad bridge was blown up on the morning of March 10th, after the Germans had finally withdrawn their troops from the “Wesel pocket” west of the Rhine. A fortnight later, Wesel was targeted again: At 5 PM on March 23rd, 1945, a force of 90 British bombers dropped their loads on the ruined city in preparation for the impending attack by Allied ground troops. On the same day, at 10.30 PM, another air raid by 195 bombers unfolded. Shortly afterwards, British „Commando“ special forces crossed the Rhine just downstream of Wesel and advanced from the „Gravinsel“ area  towards the completely destroyed town. Meeting only scattered resistance, they conquered Wesel on March 24th, 1945. 

A total of 562 civilians lost their lives in the series of airraids on the city of Wesel, in addition around 100 German soldiers were killed, as well as an unknown number of civilian forced labourers. These were civilians who had been deported to Germany, mostly from the Soviet Union and Poland. The town of Wesel was completely devastated, except for a few outlying districts. In late March, after British forces had taken control of the town, there were still around 3,500 inhabitants in Wesel; by May 1945, this number had dwindled to a mere 1,900 people. Shortly before the beginning of the Second World War, the town had been home to 25,000 inhabitants. Of 8199 housing units in 1939 only 506 still existed at the end of 1945. This meant that Wesel had a mere six percent left of its pre-war housing. The series of airraids had wiped out the inner city within the ring roads, i.e. the most densely built-up and inhabited centre of the city. 97 percent of this area had been turned into rubble. Wesel counts as one of the most heavily destroyed cities in Germany during the Second World War. A book published in 1961 was aptly titled “Der Untergang der Stadt Wesel im Jahr 1945” („The Extinction of Wesel in 1945“). It should be noted, though, that by the late 1950s Wesel’s reconstruction had been largely completed. Shortly after the war, housing had to be built quickly and all planning was characterized by pragmatism. Surprisingly, by the end of 1954, the city counted over 24,000 inhabitants again. Although most of Wesel's architectural gems had been lost, the citizenry cherished its memories of „old Wesel“. Yet, the Second World War had added a terrible chapter to Wesel’s long history. Many survivors' accounts bear witness to the events of February 1945 - and to this day memories of death and destruction are an important part of Wesel's public culture of remembrance.