Captain Greening built a special bombsight for the Doolittle Raiders named the "Mark Twain." Anyone know why they called it this?

I think it was because it was just a stick but it has been a few years since I read up on it. At the time they thought the Nordon bombsite was really special but it did not turn out that way in practice.

__________________
Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

Here is a story on the mission and the bomb site part is approx. a 1/4 down the page.

http://www.kued.org/productions/worl...lson_chase.php

__________________
Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

Thanks for the link TA. But was it called the "Mark Twain" because it was so simple or because it was cheap perhaps?

I believe the bombsigt was manufactured in Elmira, NY where Mark Twain lived for much of his adult life.

i would believe it was named that, because its rather primitive design...but im just taking shots in the dark with this one...

__________________
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." -Winston Churchill

My research has suggested that the bombsight has been known by several monikers; The 20 cent bombsight, The Greening bombsight, and The Mark Twain.
Developed by C.R. Greening, one of the Doolittle Raiders and a remarkable man, the mechanism was cobbled together at Elgin AAFB from scrap aluminum. The Norden unit was ineffective at low altitude and too heavy for the long distance Tokyo mission and as it turned out, the simple device worked quite well at the low altitudes the Raiders would be flying.
The prevailing theories on the "Mark Twain" name are; 1) The Greening family was related to the Clemmons family, so he chose the pen name of his famous relative. 2) In the early days of river piloting, depth was measured by a weighted line with knots at specified intervals. When the the water reached the second knot, the leadsman's call was, "Mark Twain"! The Raider's felt that they would be flying and using the bombsight at about the same height off the ground, hence "Mark Twain"! You get to decide which reason is better!
On a different note, Elmira New York was where the Norden Bombsights were built for a while.

__________________
“It’s the unconquerable soul of man, not the nature of the weapon he uses, that insures victory.”

I like the second one better. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for your help, Fury. It is much appreciated. [img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img]