The myth of the Nazi “Redoubt” in the Bavarian Alps was one of the greatest intelligence failures of the war. The Germans considered the idea, but never seriously. When Goebbels discovered the Western allies were obsessed by the idea he began a disinformation plan to plant information to reinforce the Allied belief the Redoubt really existed. He even had German soldiers briefed on the “plan” so they would spill it in interrogation if they were taken prisoner.
Maybe it was at some level. At the front line level, we made no special anticipations. What we saw was the Germans dropping resistance to us to concentrate on the advancing Russians. The Germans were quite willing to let us take over territory. We waited on the Austrian border for the Russians to advance, based on some higher level political deal. We regarded to biggest intelligence failure was the Battle of the Budge.