[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Theoria, a fool in paradise, and Army Air Corps.

[colorado tanker]

One of the reasons Ike turned away from Berlin and headed south was to take on the rumored National Redoubt, but the Nazis never implemented the strategy. It was one of the greatest intelligence failures of the War. Indeed, when Goebbels realized Allied intelligence was obsessing about a Nazi Redoubt in Bavaria he began a disinformation campaign aimed at giving them "proof," in the form of disinformation planted with soldiers who might become prisoners, plans, diagrams, etc. Ironically, the lack of Ultra intelligence convinced Allied commanders of the truth of the story because Hitler had kept the Ardennes offensive off Ultra by prohibiting any radio traffic about it.

That said, in the last days of the war there was a massive movement of government units, troops and loot into Southern Bavaria to avoid the Red Army. When American troops began to penetrate the region they found hundreds of thousands of German troops but hardly any organized into effective units. This location is right on the Austrian border which in May 1945 was between Americans advancing from the north and the Allied Italian army, which had just penetrated the Brenner Pass and was advancing on Salzburg. The conditions were right for stashing loot in advance of the American arrival.

It will be interesting to see if they find anything.