63 PUZZLES/MYSTERIES/DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (DST)

Spring forward, fall back is supposed to be a helpful mnemonic to aid with the setting of clocks. However, it only happens twice a year so people have a fifty/fifty chance of getting that wrong too. After all ‘spring back, fall forward’ makes as much sense.
In Britain where the term ‘fall’ isn’t fully understood, many injuries occur around the time of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, due to people leaping back and forth trying to get their timepieces correct.
The German government first adopted this bizarre system during the First World War as a means to confuse the enemy. This is one of the reasons that the Swiss stayed out of the fighting; they where too busy inventing clocks and watches that would make the transition to DST automated. They then planned to sell these items to the highest bidder.
Germany’s plan of confusion however backfired. They anticipated that the Brits would forget to set their watches on March 31st 1916 and so turn up for the various battles planned across Europe too early, and be forced to wait in the cold, getting annoyed while the Hun had an extra hour in bed. Germany expected the advantage of a good nights rest and then to meet a tired and resentful enemy and so win the battles with ease. However they didn’t count on Private Derek ‘Sally’ Sullivan. Sally was in charge of the British Army DST Brigade, and remembered the mnemonic as ‘Spring back’, and so inadvertently ensured the humble Tommy an extra two hours in bed and it was the Bosch who got worked up and worn out, and endured a sound thrashing. This was the beginning of the end of WW1. Derek was court-martialled for failing to get correct the one thing for which he was trained. It was only when the Top Brass tried to write the report and explain BST and why they had won so many battles on that day, that they realised what a fiendishly complicated affair it was and decided to promote Private Sullivan to the rank of General because it was better to be lucky than good.