Waffen-SS assault guns and anti-tank guns were pushed forward to repulse the Russian attacks, which went on well into the afternoon. At 15:00 hours, Das Reich's panzer kampfgruppe was mustered from its reserve positions to counterattack and neutralize the Soviet threat once and for all. Two Soviet tank brigades were decimated in the sweep and 21 T-34s destroyed. This calmed the situation for a few hours. The Soviets were not finished yet, though, and they pushed forward again at 17:00 hours to try to force a breach between Das Reich and the 167th Infantry Division. As nightfall approached, the Soviet attack on Das Reich had well and truly run out of steam.

The Totenkopf grinds its way forward

Over on the western flank of the battlefield, the Totenkopf Division was still battling to break out of its bridgehead. As the pressure mounted on German defences in front of Prokhorovka during the morning, the division was ordered to swing a kampfgruppe back across the Psel to strike into the Soviet armour using the valley as a base to attack the Leibstandarte Division. This attack made some progress and kept the Soviets bottled up in their "valley of death" for the rest of the day. The schwerpunkt of the division's efforts was to the north, and at 12:30 hours its panzer kampfgruppe was launched northwards through a huge barrage of Katyusha rocket fire. The Totenkopf's panzers, with their 10 Tiger tanks in the lead, swept all before them. The advance rolled 3.2km (2 miles) north to cut the main road north out of Prokhorovka, and only the onset of darkness brought it to a halt. The division's panzers claimed the destruction of 27 Russian tanks in the advance. Follow-up panzergrenadiers made slower progress in the face of determined Soviet infantry, who fought to the last in the villages and woods around the bridgehead. This meant only a narrow corridor could be kept open from the bridgehead to the panzer spearhead to the north. Soviet counterattacks and artillery barrages rained down on the Totenkopf Division well into the night, inflicting heavy casualties. The division's panzers suffered badly, with more than 45 out of 94 tanks being put out of action, including all of its Tigers. Heavy rain showers washed the battlefield during the early evening, extinguishing many of the 400 burning tank hulks that were arrayed in front of the German lines. In the rain, repair crews from both sides tried to recover the remains of the damaged tanks to patch them up for the next day's combat.

Soviet losses

A string of top Soviet generals visited the battlefield to congratulate Rotmistrov on his great "victory". He had stopped the élite of Hitler's hated SS in their tracks and still held Prokhorovka. When Rotmistrov toured his shattered command to see for himself if it could be made ready for action the following day, he could be forgiven for thinking he had suffered a massive defeat. XXIX Tank Corps had lost 60 percent of its tanks, and XVIII Tank Corps had suffered 30 percent losses. On 13 July, Rotmistrov admitted that his tank army could only field 100 to 150 combat-ready tanks out of the 850 committed for action at Prokhorovka on the previous day. The remainder had been destroyed or were too badly damaged to be considered fit for action.

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