How Long Was It After World War I And World War II Before.....

The first use of World War II was days after the Polish blitzkrieg began, IIRC it was in a Time Magazine dated 9/5/39. I'm not sure when it became standard nomenclature or when the Great War was first called World War I.

msdemos--

In one of my favorite films, "Bataan", released in 1943 and starring Robert Taylor, there is a scene where a corporal says to the platoon sergeant (the sergeant is played by Taylor):

"I was a little young for World War One."

I always found that line interesting, because I'm guessing the term "World War I"
was not used until September 1939 at the very earliest (after World War II commenced), and the above line of dialogue might have been the first time the term "World War One" was used in a fiction (non-documentary, non-newsreel) film.


Sincerely,

Todd



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Google Ngram viewer shows both WWI appearing in 1938 and WWII appearing the next year. (There may have been a few uses around 1919 of WWI, though it's hard to tell). See link:
https://is.gd/SxRcSZ

Read Staroamers Fate http://is.gd/WdmgqC & Syrons Fate http://is.gd/L2Vzrg

1918 and 1939 respectively

Far from waiting until the Second World War had started, the First World War was rather pessimistically named as such in 1918.

British Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Charles à Court Repington recorded in his diary for 10 Sep 1918 that he met with a Major Johnstone of Harvard University to discuss what historians should call the war. Repington said it was then referred to as The War, 'but that this could not last'. They agreed that 'To call it The German War was too much flattery for the Boche.' Repington concludes: 'I suggested The World War as a shade better title, and finally we mutually agreed to call it The First World War in order to prevent the millennium folk from forgetting that the history of the world was the history of war.' Between the wars most people did refer to the war as the Great War, even though that had originally referred to the Napoleonic War. In the US, it was ‘The World War’.

Time magazine announced that 'World War Two began last week' as early as September 1939. A few weeks after the war broke out, Duff Cooper published a book of his speeches from October 1938 to August 1939 called 'The Second World War'. In 1942, President Roosevelt wanted an alternative name. He rejected 'Teutonic Plague' and 'Tyrants' War' and settled on 'The War of Survival,' but it didn't take. The US officially named the war 'World War Two' only in 1945. WW2 was often referred to as The Second Great War in its early days - and the phrase was in use at least as late as January 1959.

For WWII, I have a small book called Time Capsule: 1939 which is a compilation of news for the year. An article dated 9/5/39 (no named listed) begins "WWII [sic] began last week when German forces poured over the Polish border..."

And WWIII, euphemistically called the (Not So) Cold War, formally started with Churchill's Iron Curtain speech.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)