Returning in late November, he was assigned to 6. Staffel, near Stalingrad, after the Soviets had launched Operation Uranus that encircled Axis forces fighting in and near the city. As the Germans were retreating back to Taganrog and Rostov, he scored his 125th victory on 7 January 1943. Eight days later, his Bf 109 G-2 ("Werknummer" 14556—factory number) fighter crashed after suffering engine problems. He was shot down again behind Russian lines in mid-February, returning to friendly territory after a two-day trek across the frozen Sea of Azov minus one fur-lined flying boot and with a smashed shoulder and dislocated right arm. Schmidt then spent five days at the field hospital before he was transferred to the "Luftwaffen-Lazarett" (military hospital) in Berlin, and was then sent to his hometown "Reserve-Lazarett" (reserve military hospital) in Bad Homburg.