the bulk of the sorties for Fliegerkorps VIII on 8 July; some 701 missions in total. The wing provided close air support to the II SS Panzercorps. On 9 July StG 2 lost five of the six Ju 87s lost by the air corps. The losses of the 9 July was a stark warning to the dive-bomber forces that faced mounting difficulties in daylight operations over contested airspace. From 9 July, the number Stuka sorties fell from over 1,000 on 5 July to 700 to 800 in the following dayes, to half that from 10 July. The wing fought at the Battle of Prokhorovka, but StG 2 and 77 made their weakest contribution to the battle thus far. Only 150 combat sorties were flown between them; compared to 471 the previous day and 1,071 on 5 July. Rudel claimed 12 tanks—though his success and tanks kills have been questioned by historians and other German pilots. On 13 and 14 July the wing lost two aircraft on each day. During bombing missions to support the 4th Panzer Army's 2nd SS Panzer Division at the village of Belenikhino, StG 2 lost another veteran, commander of 5./StG 2 Knight's Cross winner Günther Schmid. An irreplaceable veteran of 700 dive-bombing missions died when his Ju 87 exploded in mid-air near Vinogradovka. From 16 July StG 2 covered the German II SS Panzer Corps resisting Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev. II./StG 2 lost three Ju 87s in combat. I. and III./StG 2 were rushed north on 15 July 1943 when a Soviet offensive, Operation Kutuzov threatened to destroy the 9th army and 2nd Panzer Army. Upon third group's arrival the commander Hauptmann Walter Krauss was killed in an air raid on Orel-East on 16/17 July. Rudel succeeded him. Egbert Jäckel commanding 2./StG 2 was killed later in the day—another Knight'sCross winner. The air operations by Fliegerdivision 1, to which StG 2 was attached, succeeded in halting the Western Front's advance. 449 Ju 87 missions were flown on 18 July. SG 1 and SG 2 were heavily involved in the repulse of the Soviet advancement on the Orel-Bryansk communication lines. Staffelkapitän Heinz Junclaussen, of 1./StG 2, claimed the cannon-armed Ju 87s inflicted a heavy toll on Soviet armour. The Soviet official history conceded the failure of the 11th Guards Army was due to German aviation. The 1st Tanks Corps had only 33 tanks remaining at the end of