Whether it was due to Hitler's desire to preserve the town because of the importance of Shakespeare to German culture or simply because of its military and economic insignificance, Stratford-upon-Avon remained comparatively peaceful and safe throughout the years of the war. The presence of military personnel and government officials, stray bombs, crashed aircraft and the employment of its citizens in nearby factories kept the war very much alive in the consciousness of the townspeople, yet there was very little direct threat. Indeed, the town was actually something of a vantage point from which to witness the destruction of the industrial cities of the English Midlands. With its increasingly cultivated Shakespearean associations, its residual rural aspect and its English charm as a town symbolically situated at the ‘Heart of England’, Stratford was geographically and ideologically unique as a place from which to observe the potential destruction of the values it had come to represent. This role invites speculation on the long-established metaphorical connection between the theatre (as a place of action and observation) and warfare in general. War is commonly thought of as ‘theatre’ (as in ‘a theatre of war’) and those involved in military activity speak of being ‘in theatre’ when they are transferred from the periphery to the centre of a conflict – where there is an actual ‘engagement’ with an enemy. Similarly, battles are ‘staged’, soldiers belong to ‘companies’ and go on ‘tours’ of duty, and hostilities are seen as ‘action’.