Following his convalescence, Schmidt returned to the Eastern Front and was briefly assigned to 4. "Staffel" before he was transferred to 6. "Staffel" on 23 July. At the time of his return, II. "Gruppe" was based at Mariupol, and fighting in the Kuban bridgehead as part of the Battle of the Caucasus. On 27 July, Schmidt was appointed "Staffelkapitän" (squadron leader) of 6. "Staffel", replacing "Oberleutnant" Helmut Lipfert who had temporarily held this position following the death of "Oberleutnant" Karl Ritzenberger on 24 May. The next day, he claimed his 131st victory, a Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter. The military situation of Army Group South resulted in splitting the forces of II. "Gruppe". All of 6. "Staffel" and parts of 5. "Staffel" were relocated to Kutejnykowe, approximately west of Amvrosiivka, on 1 August. This task force was put under the command of "Oberleutnant" Gerhard Barkhorn. Two days later, Soviet forced launched the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation resulting in another redeployment of JG 52. Now based at the Charkow-Rogan airfield, southeast of Kharkov, Schmidt became an "ace-in-a-day" again. That day, he was credited with five aerial victories, an Il-2, three Yakovlev Yak-1 fighters and a Lavochkin La-5 fighter. On 11 August, the task force was ordered from Charkow-Rogan to Lebedyn. Here it provided fighter protection over the areas of operation between the 8th Army and 4th Panzer Army. This transfer detached the task force from the command of I. "Gruppe", to which it had been assigned. Barkhorn, who at the time also served as acting "Gruppenkommandeur" (group commander), stayed with I. "Gruppe". Command of the task force subsequently went to Schmidt. He achieved his 150th aerial victory the next day after claiming a pair of Yak-1s.