Although you won’t find this discussed in many history books, one of the most important events of World War II actually took place right here in the United States a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. At that time, the U.S. Army held a series of massive military exercises in Louisiana. These exercises were designed to assess the preparedness of the American forces for participation in the war. As it happened, those war games revealed some glaring deficiencies. It quickly became obvious to our military commanders that if America were drawn into the war, as many believed it would be, there would have to be a long period of rebuilding and modernization. This would have to take place while American forces were fighting all over the world with inferior and outdated equipment… and that’s exactly what happened.
It took almost three years of patience and hard work and sacrifice before the U.S. war machine was brought up to modern standards. But President Franklin Roosevelt and generals such as Eisenhower and MacArthur knew that the wait would be well worthwhile and that, once the task was completed, victory would be assured.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the story was very much the same. Winston Churchill knew that England would have to endure months and years of bombing and threats of invasion, but he also knew that time was on his side. With great patience and courage, the British people waited out bombing raids by planes and rockets. At last, the tide began to turn. The world realized that patience and endurance would defeat the fearful aggressor.
The city of Leningrad was also under siege for more than a year, but the Russians knew the value of patience perhaps better than anyone. More than a century earlier, after all, they had let their bitter climate and the sheer size of their land defeat the French armies under Napoleon. The same natural forces eventually prevailed against the new invader.
It was the patient countries–the United States, England, and Russia–who won the Second World War against enemies who banked on surprise and the hope of a quick victory.
* Source: Leading an Inspired Life by Jim Rohn