One hall of the aviation museum is dedicated to World War II. There, replicas of the V1 and V2 can be seen, as well as military aircraft from those dark days. But what struck me most was not the military hardware, but instead the picture of a leaflet dropped by the allies near the end of the war. It was printed in German and instructed the Wehrmacht soldiers about what they should do if the allied forces approached them. I don't recall if they were to raise their hands or wave a white flag, but I do remember the words they were supposed to say. If a Briton came towards them, with his rifle pointing at their face, they had to say: "Ei sörender".
As a linguist, I was amused. Appearantly the British assumed correctly that most German soldiers did not know English. Yet to prevent tragic events such as can be seen in 'Saving private Ryan', they gave the Germans a crash course in English.
I wonder if the Americans dropped such leaflets in Iraq. How would "I surrender" be transcribed in Arabic?