I have been looking for the answer to this Question lately, with very little luck.
In the Early years of WWII, 1939 to mid 1941, how were the press, the public, and the governments actually referring to the conflict?

When did the phrase "World War Two" become common usage?
When did our parents decide they needed to add the "I" after the World War?

Too much of the History easily available was written or adapted after the War, I need references to periodicals and perhaps correspondence of the time.

It does not help that certain combatants tend to give these conflicts their own name.
The Soviets never referred to it as WWII, probably because of the way they chickened out of WWI. Soviet propaganda churned out "The Great Patriotic War", got a nice ring to it.
I believe the Japanese refer to the "Great Pacific War"

WWI was fought on two fronts in Europe, the Middle East, and according to the African Queen some border skirmishes in Colonial Africa. Yet it got the label World War, perhaps because of the involvement of far flung colonial troops. Or simply because of the Euro-centric nature of the Information Industries, then and now.
It had been The World War, or more often the Great War, until there was a reason to put a number after it.

So in 1939, the Germans attack Poland, the Italians are occupying Ethiopia, and the Japanese are torturing Manchurians. Now the British and the French declare War on Germany when it invades Poland, but there is little they can do, so the "Phoney War" begins. But it had to have a real name, didn’t it?

Not a World War, yet, and I doubt the press was calling it such, bad for business.

In 1940 Hitler sweeps across France and the British retreat to the Home Islands. The Battle of Britain starts. The Italians are still in Ethiopia, and attack British positions in Egypt from their colony, Libya. The Japanese continue to expand in China and... The Sleeping Giant still Sleeps!.

So, it must have been clear to everyone what was happening, but it is far from a Global Conflict, and has yet to surpass "The Great War" as a meat grinder.

In '41 the Germans enter Libya to reinforce Italy, and the North African Campaigns begin.
I am guessing this would be about the time that "World War II" began to be accepted, even with nothing going on in the Pacific.

Finally, in Summer, the Germans turn on Russia, and in December, the Empire of Japan launched its multiple pronged attack against forces of the United States, Great Britain, and Australia, everybody was fighting a two front war, and it was truly a global conflict.

Does anyone have any enlightening information, or links to quotes containing early usage of "World War Two"? And by default World War "I"?
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Slash, welcome to the forums. The next time you post would you mind sticking to the default font size? This one makes it look like you're shouting at somebody

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Sorry, I cut and pasted from my Word Program.

Your thesis seems to be that until the US entered the war, it wasn't a global conflict. On the outbreak of war the British Empire had colonies in every part of the globe. Warfare at sea and air, if not on land, occurred in most parts of that Empire long before Pearl Harbour.

In the UK it was called the Second World War or the Second Great War as early as 1939/40. I have contemporary magazines which use these phrases.

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Paul Reed
Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info
D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com

No, that is not my thesis at all. In fact there is no thesis, there is a question, about at what point the press, the general population,started referring to the war as "the Second World War"? And when did the Great War become WWI?
Was it as early as the Invasion of Poland?
Simple, question, no hidden National agendas.
Also, remember, Japan entered WWII at the same time the US did. Imperial Japan had been kicking the Chinese around for 5 years but of course, that didn't count until she attacked the right people.