What If Europe Is Left Completely Broken?

Let's say WW2 gets worse. Much worse. Let's say the U.S, for whatever reason, doesn't get involved, so it's the British Empire and the Soviet Union vs Nazi Germany and her allies {Japan decides to stay busy in China instead}. The timeline is pretty much like OTL, so France falls in 1940 and the USSR gets invaded in 1941. Etc etc...

Now, after a titanic, mind-numbing struggle, the USSR throws the Germans out of the country by say... 1944. And the British, after much bloodshed, manage to cleanse the seas and skies of German weapons, but not after she is nearly strangled by blockade.

At this point, neither side has the strength to win this war conventionally, even with Commonwealth troops coming in. So the chemical weapons are taken off the shelves...

And now we're in 1949. A military coup has overthrown the Nazi regime and has brokered a peace deal. But the continent is now a toxic, barren wasteland. Formerly great cities have been turned into ruins. The death toll is too high to be counted accurately. The economies of nearly all of the European nations* are completely shattered, and the people are mostly reduced to barter.

My question is, with Europe so crippled, what will the world look like 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years from 1949? Inspired by this thread: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=243216

*Not that Japan and China -especially China- are much better.
 
At this point, neither side has the strength to win this war conventionally, even with Commonwealth troops coming in. So the chemical weapons are taken off the shelves...

Do the British resort to Operation Vegetarian? Because it can potentially end the war, although it admittedly depopulated parts of Germany in the process.
 
Do the British resort to Operation Vegetarian? Because it can potentially end the war, although it admittedly depopulated parts of Germany in the process.


Yes, they go all-out. Nothing is held back, not even Operation Vegetarian.

EDIT: To be clear, anyone in the war who has chemical weapons, uses them.
 
I suppose the people on the Continent would get desperate enough to give Communism a try. Preventing its spread was a chief motivator for the Marshal Plan.
 
If the British are the first to use chemical weapons that help to kill tens of millions of civilians Churchill is going to be every bit as much of a war criminal as Hitler or Stalin. The British will have zero moral advantage and will be just another power fighting over the scraps.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Communism.
With a broken collapsing Naz Germany, the USSR would become the great Continental Power. And with Europe broken and in shambles, a Worker's Revolution would to many be very tempting.
 
If you want to make the European war bigger, Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Turkey can be easily roped in.

Man! At least keep Sweden out of it. They never did nothin'. Though I have to admit I would love to see Operation Raedda Danmark actually happening (for those of you not in the know, this was a planned Swedish invasion of Nazi-occupied Denmark to keep it out of the hands of the Soviets).
 
Man! At least keep Sweden out of it. They never did nothin'. Though I have to admit I would love to see Operation Raedda Danmark actually happening (for those of you not in the know, this was a planned Swedish invasion of Nazi-occupied Denmark to keep it out of the hands of the Soviets).

That could work, but i was thinking of having Sweden back up the Fins against the Soviets. It's not going to make a huge amount of difference but it will make Europe that little bit bloodier, probably a couple thousand extra corpses by the end.
 
Top