On 5 and 7 March I. "Gruppe" claimed 21 Soviet aircraft in total and from 9 to 14 March claimed another eight. During this period, the German army carried out Operation Büffel, a series of local withdrawals in the Battles of Rzhev. The authorised strength of the "gruppe" was 40 aircraft and pilots. The quarterly report on 31 March stated that 48 pilots were present, 35 available for duty. It had 35 Fw 190s, but only 24 were operational. In the late spring operated form Dno until 6 May. I. "Gruppe" moved to Smolensk on 9 May and participated in the build-up for the Battle of Kursk. It was involved in Operation "Carmen", a series of bombing attacks on Kursk rail targets on 2 June. Johannes Seifert relinquished command of the "gruppe" and was replaced by Fritz Losigkeit. The group returned to Germany soon afterwards and was not involved in the Kursk battle.