You are right about that. From all of the books I have read on this monumental battle (largely forgotten even though it was the greatest clash of armor in all history), it looks to me as though the Germans were about score a major breakthrough on the southern end of the offensive(the northern end of the attack was going nowhere)yet Hitler called the whole thing off after the Allies invaded Sicily and redeployed a number of key divisions fighting at Kursk.
There is a very good description the Soviet reaction to the beginning of the battle in Alexander Werth’s “Russia at War.” The Soviet people learn of the start of the battle today. For the past two months they have been very tense about when the front will erupt, and in the past two summers the Germans have inflicted massive defeats on the Red Army. It is now with a sense of relief that the battle has begun, there is more confidence in the armed forces, but also a sense of concern. Will we be able to stop the fascists this time?