In front of Kecskemét, the Soviets made their first serious mistake. Instead of outflanking the city and leaving the mopping-up to the infantry, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps tried to take the city by coup de main. Poor planning and toxic competition between unit commanders resulted in failure. When Soviet armor eventually went around the obstacle to isolate it, the Germans initiated a series of counter-attacks on the flanks of the shock groups. Moreover, the German Air Force directed the entire might of its air units in Hungary against the Soviet columns. East of Kecskemét, the former cavalrymen of the 24th Panzer Division made up one branch of the pincer attack. In early afternoon, division's northern battle group finally arrived and prepared a new attack toward the town.

In the puszta, the Germans assembled the entire strength of the armored battle group into a powerful fist. In response, the bulk of the 37th Guards Tank Brigade went north. At around 1630, 28 panzers surged to the southwest to cut off the main road to Kecskemét. They ran straight into the guns of the T34/85's, which destroyed 10 panzers, halting the attack. Fierce fighting raged throughout the afternoon and into the evening.

By the evening the 37th Guards Tank Brigade could no longer withstand the enemy pressure and the Germans had fragmented it into three groups. The Soviet forward detachment was encircled by the panzer grenadiers; its situation worsened when shortly before midnight the Axis artillery joined the battle and began to shell the trapped battalion. Radio communication had been lost with another of the brigade's tank battalions and its exact location and condition were unknown; the battalion was busy repulsing attacks by enemy armor and panzer-grenadiers somewhere southeast or east of Kecskemét. The brigade's motorized rifle battalion had been split into groups and assigned piecemeal to the tank battalions.

At around 2200, the 24th Panzer Division managed to open a corridor to Kecskemét, cutting off both Soviet tank battalions. German armored elements finally penetrated the town on 31 October at 0200 and linked up with the anti-aircraft troops inside the city. Less than 24 hours after a promising start, the bulk of the Soviet 46th Army had been brought to a halt well short of its objectives. This German success enabled them to move two more panzer divisions into the Guards' path and to complete the regrouping of three other mobile divisions to Budapest.