FEATURES
WEAPONS OF WAR
How did a rejected machine carbine developed in a shed from car parts become one of the best submachine guns of the 20th century? John Ash profiles the Owen, an Australian icon
PRIVATE R GAUDRY OF THE 2/3RD BATTALION, AIF, WITH HIS OWEN IN KALIMBOA VILLAGE, NEW GUINEA, APRIL 1945
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL UNLESS STATED
On July 8, 1965, Lance Corporal David Munday gingerly trekked through the South Vietnamese jungle Vainly trying to follow a small, overgrown track, his men crept through thick brush in a single line. As they pushed through bamboo and vines, the waiting Viet Cong crept into position. Gunfire shattered the jungle ambience, and in moments three men were wounded – including Munday. Protecting his wounded comrades, Munday engaging the enemy with fire.
He was himself shot, his leg shattered resulting in its subsequent amputation. Yet he continued to engage the enemy and direct the fire of his section’s machine gun. When hit again, in the right shoulder, Munday swapped to his left shoulder to shoot and changed magazines by pinning his gun between his knees.
THE OWEN MACHINE CARBINE PERFORMED ALMOST FAULTLESSLY IN JUNGLE CONFLICT FOR ALMOST 25 YEARS
It was enough. Within minutes, the Australians had charged though the ambush to fight off their attackers and medical attention was provided to the wounded. Munday, who would receive the Military Medal, was able to keep firing owing to the simplicity and reliability of his dependable Owen gun – the Australian icon that only entered service after a series of rejections had once again saved lives.
In need of weapons
The origins of this fabled firearm long predate Vietnam. At 9am on September 3, 1939, the British delivered a letter of ultimatum to Nazi Germany.
It was quickly rejected, and its demands – to withdraw from Poland – expired. Britain was now at war with Germany and Australia was automatically involved. But to show willingness, Prime Minister Robert Menzies asked that Germany be notified of Australia’s association with Britain, even if the ‘decision’ to enter had been by default.
While there was little appetite for war, the government and public had been generally in line with the changing policies of its parent nation. However, the Great Depression had hit Australian military spending hard. In 1939, SMLE rifles and Lewis guns remained standard issue and although the Lithgow Small Arms Company had been producing British weapons from 1912, there was no real indigenous weapons industry. It took Lithgow time to work up and manufacture small arms such as the Bren, while Australian examples of the No.4 Rifle were being produced elsewhere.
But the war was far from home. Australia was not in direct peril and could rely on British equipment. Its troops sailed to Britain or North Africa where they could be re-equipped, and although the Australian Army was late to see value in submachine guns, so too were the British – both would purchase expensive M1928 Thompsons until alternatives could be sourced. Britain was soon in a desperate situation and struggled to meet its own demand for arms, let alone Australia’s. Then, in December 1941, Japan entered the war and the fighting was soon as close as New Guinea. Japanese aircraft were within range of Australia’s shores and the Royal Australian Navy could not contain its Japanese counterpart should it turn its full attention south.
Australian priorities changed, invasion was a real threat and the army was in desperate need of arms. In particular, it sought a submachine gun suited to jungle fighting.
The British sent technical drawings and samples of the Mk.I and Mk.II Sten. It would be easy to produce these indigenously, but the Australians were unimpressed with the much-anticipated gun. Making the best of it, a derivative of the Sten that had some interchangeable parts – retaining components such as the barrel and trigger assembly – and compatible magazines was developed, the Austen Mk.I. Produced by Diecasters Ltd and WT Carmichael Ltd, this included a pistol grip, foregrip and modifications derived from the MP38 such as a folding stock and Germanstyle recoil spring.
However, the Austen was expensive, and many of its innovations were needlessly complicated and offered little over the cheaper Sten. Necessity and politics saw it enter service, though few reached troops. Work on the improved Mk.II was slow; it produced a substantially different gun but didn’t enter service until August 1946. It was declared obsolete the same month.
THE INVENTOR OF THE OWEN GUN, THEN A PRIVATE IN THE 2/17TH BATTALION, AIF, AIMS A PROTOTYPE OWEN CHAMBERED IN .45ACP
“In 1938, aged 22, Evelyn Owen built his gun. He combined the barrel from a civilian rif le with a 44-round revolver-style magazine fashioned from car parts and gramophone bits”
Home built
The Owen Machine Carbine predated the Austen, but this bulky, ungainly submachine gun fought on well into the 1960s. Incredibly, it was first designed in a shed by an amateur firearms tinkerer, Evelyn Owen.
Born in May 1915, Owen was a plasterboard manufacturer living in Port Kembla, New South Wales. A keen firearms hobbyist, he had been building shotguns from the age of eight and concepted a submachine gun as early as 1931. In 1938, aged 22, he built his gun. Chambered in .22, he combined the barrel from a civilian rifle with a 44-round revolver-style magazine fashioned from car parts and gramophone bits, creating a crude trigger –a thumb press atop the stock.
He took the gun to the forerunner to the Army Inventions Board (AIB), but was unsuccessful and in 1940 enlisted for service. Some suggest that Owen convinced the manager at Lysaght’s steel plant, Vincent Wardell, and his brother Gerard, chief engineer, of his gun’s application. Others state that Owen left his gun in a sack propped up against his house where Vincent (Owen’s neighbour and/or his father’s tenant) happened across it. Either way, Wardell was impressed and a convoluted struggle of politics and bureaucracy between Owen and Lysaght, elements of the army and arms procurement boards, and the government followed. After this manoeuvring, Owen was recalled to aid development and Lysaght offered to produce a trial model. But the army – being in anticipation of receiving the Sten and then the Austen, and distracted by electoral turmoil (and resultant staff changes) – was not keen on the home-built wonder.
OWEN GUN PROTOTYPES
The Australian War Memorial has at least one of each Owen gun prototype in its collection. Pictured side by side, it is interesting to see how the development of the gun progressed from shed-built contraption to standard-issue small arm:
(1): Owen’s .22 prototype submachine gun, home-built from rifle parts, a drum magazine operated by a coil spring and a trigger made from a piece of spring steel.
(2): The original second experimental Owen made at Lysaght’s factory and chambered in .32-calibre.
(3): The third experimental Owen, chambered in .45ACP. The barrel used was a repurposed Martini Henry rifle.
(4): One of two fourth prototype Owen guns in the AWM collection, all produced in .38 by Lysaght. This is a short-barrel version, the second is a long-barrel variant.
(5): The fifth prototype Owen, the first version chambered in 9mm. The action is similar to the .38 version and retains the long barrel.
(6): One of the first production Mk.I Owen guns made at the Lysaght factory. It features a skeleton stock made from steel strapping and is fitted with a Lee Enfield sling.
TROOPER PEARSON FIRING HIS OWEN GUN IN ANGER; THE FOOTAGE WAS USED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION FILM ‘JUNGLE PATROL’
The Owen had supporters –a sympathetic captain in the AIB (unofficially) requested Lysaght continue development – but many sought to bog the gun in bureaucracy. The army stipulated the gun use .38 calibre rounds, knowing few were available. Nevertheless, a second prototype – firing privately obtained .32 calibre rounds – was fired in January 1941. This fitted a compensator and used a 30-round magazine that fed into the left side and slanted back. The gun continued to gain support, but opposition remained steadfast.
OWEN (RIGHT) DISCUSSES THE FEATURES OF HIS GUN WITH A LYSAGHT SIGHT SETTER AND GUN TESTER, MAY 1942
Lysaght developed a third version in .45ACP, adopting the distinctive top-mounted magazine and offset sights. It worked, but the request to use .38 rounds was reiterated. The required change was made in five weeks and was tested in May. Finally, following War Office intervention, an order was placed. Lysaght began production on the first 100 guns in June, but trials proved that .38 was too weak a calibre. Lysaght reverted to .45ACP, but one positive from the Sten was its 9mm round; three Owens were converted to 9mm in the 21 days before a further round of trials – on September 29, 1941, which confirmed the Owen to be excellent. It was subjected to gruelling tests alongside the Sten, Thompson and MP40. Whether buried in sand, immersed in water or sunk into mud, it kept firing without failure. Further trials saw it beat the Austen – which had resolute backing until it suffered a potentially lethal fault under stress testing.
AN INSPECTOR EXAMINES OWEN GUN BARRELS FOR FLAWS AT A NEW SOUTH WALES MUNITIONS FACTORY. SUCH PARTS HAD TO BE ACCURATE TO 1/10,000TH OF AN INCH
G COLEMAN/FAIRFAX/GETTY
WEIGHT AND AMMUNITION COMPARISON
The completed gun was very different to Evelyn Owen’s shed-built contraption – and it had been through five prototypes – but he had achieved what he set out to do.
Unique innovation
The Owen fired from an open bolt, using blowback operation. It was select-fire, affordable and despite its high rate of fire the compensator and two grips made recoil manageable. It was produced from stamped parts and had relatively few components.
Lysaght took time to tool up, but in June 1942 the target of 2,000 guns a month was met. Eight weeks later, the firm was churning out 2,400 guns monthly and when formally adopted in April 1943, 22,000 been produced. Costs also fell, the price of one gun with 11 magazines and carry case fell from £10 14s 6d to £9 2s. At 1942 prices ($Aus), the Owen cost $28.50, comparing favourably with the Austen ($32) and the M1 Thompson ($200) – though it was three times more costly than the Mk.II Sten.
Production was very much a national effort; Lysaght handled final assembly, testing and produced recoiling parts, trigger components, magazine springs and compensators, while Ricketts & Thorpe fabricated stocks. Hastings Deering produced barrels and Fletcher Springs the other sprung components. The main bodies and grips were built by British Tube Mills and WJ Manufacturing. A total of 45,477 guns, 500,247 magazines and 600,000 spare parts had been manufactured when production ceased in September 1944.
COMMONWEALTH, POSSIBLY BRITISH, SOLDIERS ON PATROL IN MALAYA IN 1952, THE LEAD TWO MEN ARMED WITH OWEN GUNS. THIS 30- MAN PATROL WAS LYING IN AMBUSH AND SHORTLY AFTER SPRUNG ITS TRAP ON COMMUNIST TERRORISTS
KEYSTONE/GETTY
The Owen is famed for its reliability – one test example fired 3,000,000 rounds without fault – and the secret to its dependability was a two-chamber receiver. The bolt and recoil spring were housed in the front while the charging handle was in the rear compartment. Other than the charging handle there was nothing in the rear to foul, and any material entering there could not interfere with the action because of the dividing firewall. In the rare event the Owen fouled, it was easy to strip. According to Engineering Heritage Sydney, disassembly could be achieved in eight seconds with reassembly effected in 15. The bolt also incorporated a groove to facilitate the self-clearing of dirt, and the breech had a small amount of clearance so a dirty cartridge would chamber. The top-feeding magazine aided reliability and ergonomics and, despite its bulk, the Owen was easier to carry and reload prone than the Sten or Thompson. Gravity worked with the feed system, minimising jamming, while the underside ejection port meant any detritus entering the port or from the magazine simply fell out.
OWEN MACHINE CARBINE VS CONTEMPORARY SUBMACHINE GUNS
NOTE: The Thompson, Sten and MP40 continued to be used by other state and non-state operators. All three are thought to still remain in limited use
“The Owen is famed for its reliability – one test e xamp le fired 3,000,000 rounds without fault – and the secret to its dependability was a two-chamber receiver”
A unique engineering decision was that the case ejector was built into each magazine; Gerard Wardell’s innovation simplified production and made disassembly easier. It also meant a faulty extractor could be fixed by changing magazines. The sights were simple irons with a rear aperture, offset because of the magazine. However, they were offset to the right (which was repeated on the Owen’s successor, the F1). This unusual – but not uncomfortable – arrangement was not detrimental to the right-shouldered shooter.
IT WAS COMMON FOR THE AUSTRALIANS TO PAINT THEIR OWEN GUNS IN A GREEN-YELLOW CAMOUFLAGE SCHEME FOR JUNGLE USE. THIS TRIALS VARIANT WAS THE FIRST TO BE CAMOUFLAGE PAINTED FOR JUNGLE WARFARE
BELOW PRODUCED IN OCTOBER 1942, THE MK.II/43 OWEN WAS THE RESULT OF THE ARMY’S REQUEST FOR A LIGHTER GUN. CHANGES INCLUDED A DETACHABLE STOCK AND A FINLESS BARREL. APPROXIMATELY 200 WERE PRODUCED FOR TRIALS
There is no clear explanation why right-offset sights were used. Theories include ‘canting’; tilting the gun left when firing from prone, supposedly to facilitate quicker magazine changes but would also making the sights effectively centreline. Others suggest the arrangement increased stability when shoulder firing or helped with peripheral vision. The most probable reason is it prevented snagging on clothing or webbing when carried right-side or fired from the right hip.
Ad hoc modification
Much like the amateur origins of the gun, alternate magazines were developed in an ad hoc fashion. In 1944, Private L Showmark, 2/2nd Battalion AIF, fashioned a double magazine for the gun. Soldiers had long taped magazines together ‘jungle-style’, but the private’s experiment was more permanent. Then in 1945, Private A Hughes, 2/43rd Battalion AIF, designed a horseshoe-shaped 72-round magazine and was photographed loading this into an Owen. The magazine curved forward, and while much heavier, claimed to reduce muzzle climb.
Official modifications were myriad, but to avoid slowing production minor changes were implemented as Lysaght churned out Owens. The Mk.I (Mk.I/42), followed by the improved Mk.I* (Mk.I/43) basic production model was the with approximately 12,000 of the former and 33,000 of the latter produced. Only a few hundred of a simplified Mk.II version were built.
Most alterations reduced weight, ultimately shedding more than 1lb. The Mk.I featured a skeleton stock, full trigger frame and a heavy barrel with cooling fins, while the Mk.I* used a wooden stock (often cut out to save weight), reduced trigger frame and dispensed with the fins and heavy barrel. As Owen parts were largely interchangeable, most guns became hybrids. Accordingly, in 1946, the Australian Army redesignated the guns into Mks I to IV, with several subvariants incorporating various changes, including a separate variant for guns refurbished by Lithgow and refit with new safety catches. For example, the Mk.II/1 would be a Lysaght Mk.I or Mk.I* with detachable stock, Mk.II barrel and 10in bayonet, whereas the Mk.II/3 had a Mk.III barrel and an 8in bayonet.
LT PETER CLIFF (LEFT) AND L/CPL DAVID MCCARTHY ON PATROL WITH ‘C’ COY, 1/RAR, SONGGOK, KOREA, ON SEPTEMBER 13, 1952. BOTH CARRY OWENS. THAT NIGHT THE PATROL ENCOUNTERED 20 CHINESE AND MCCARTHY PURSUED THEM TOWARDS THEIR LINES. ON HIS WAY BACK HE CAPTURED A CHINESE SOLDIER, THE FIRST POW TAKEN BY 1/RAR IN THE WAR. MCCARTHY WAS AWARDED THE MILITARY MEDAL
A suppressed variant was trialled by the 2/23rd Battalion, AIF, but the addition of the suppressor required removing the forward grip, so the gun had to be grasped by the magazine well. The suppressed Austen was more popular as it retained its grips, but the Australians later adopted a suppressed variant of the Sterling.
WO2 JOHN CURRIE (LEFT) AND WO1 DON MCKAY OF 1/RAR DISCUSS THE PROGRESS OF AN OPERATION IN WAR ZONE D, VIETNAM. MCKAY CARRIES AN OWEN GUN, CURRIE AN L1A1 SLR
Soldier’s best friend
Immensely popular with the troops, the Owen acquired the nickname ‘Digger’s Darling’. Though heavy and bulky, it offered dependable, immediate close-range firepower at section level. The bottommounted ejection port and sealed action prevented the clogging of the mechanism, so it was easy to maintain in the jungles of New Guinea.
One soldier recalled: “She seemed toy-like and light after the wicked-looking and beefy ‘Tommy Gun’ they’d just taken from me, but she nestled in the crook of my arm with her pea-shooter barrel and ragged-looking compensator poking out at the world like a pugnacious little snout; somehow, I’d already half-overcome the scepticism implanted by the sergeant’s words. ‘Best friend’… In a couple of weeks of hard training I learned all about her, how she kicked, when she sulked, why she smoked, and what – if anything – would make her jam. I fired her in the rain and the heat and the mud and the dust, quick and slow, hot and cold, at tins, trees and cardboard Japs who bobbed out of the scrub at the tug of a cord. I knew her inside out and respected her, and after a while she got to know me. She’d do just about anything but come to my whistle.”
Australian soldiers also carried the Owen in Korea and Vietnam. It was adopted by New Zealand and some wound up in Rhodesia. The British used it during the Malayan Emergency, it found use by the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger in the Dutch East Indies, and some were captured from Indonesian soldiers during the Konfrontasi. In 2004, newbuild Owens, modified with suppressors, were seized in Melbourne – the qualities of Australia’s venerable machine carbine evidently of interest to drug trafficking gangs.
In the 1960s, the ageing Owen was eclipsed by the assault rifle. As Australian troops pushed back against the Japanese, automatic weapons were not issued to every combatant. Sections and platoons had light machine guns or submachine guns, but bolt-action rifles remained the primary weapon in most armies. By Vietnam, assault rifles had greatly increased individual firepower. The hard-hitting Soviet AKM better penetrated foliage, while those carrying the M16 could carry large quantities of ammunition for a weapon theoretically capable out to 300-400 metres. Both had a fire rate superior to the selfloading L1A1 and were more powerful than the Owen. The submachine gun was no longer king of the jungle, but it still had its practicalities. The Owen was replaced circa-1966 by the F1 – but this, while serviceable and lighter, was considered a downgrade.
KNIL SOLDIERS WITH OWENS AND A BREN IN INDONESIA, 1947
DUTCH NATIONAAL ARCHIEF
The legacy
In spite of his significant contribution to the Australian war effort, Evelyn Owen had to be convinced to patent his firearm. He sold the patent to the Australian government in 1945 for £2,000, also receiving £12,000 in royalties. He used this to set up a sawmill, but continued to tinker with guns. The Wollongong-born inventor died on April 1, 1949, aged just 33. His legacy was the Owen – the only gun to be wholly designed and produced in Australia in wartime, the first firearm to be mass-produced exclusively in Australia, and perhaps one of best submachine guns of its time. One endorsement came from the once sceptical soldier, reflecting on when he had to surrender his beloved Owen: “I looked for the last time at her paintless barrel, worn woodwork and dauntless snout, cocky as ever, and there was a lump in my throat… there were many like me who hated to part with his Owen and who’d like to shake the hand that first fashioned the matchless little fighter that did so much towards winning the war.”.
AN OWEN MK.II/3 REFURBISHED IN 1950 BY LITHGOW. IT HAS TWO LIGHTENING CUTS TO THE TRIGGER HOUSING, A DETACHABLE WOODEN STOCK, A NEW MK.III BARREL WITH BAYONET LUG, AND A ROTATING SLEEVE SAFETY DEVICE
“I fired her in the rain and the heat and the mud and the dust, quick and slow, hot and cold , at tins, trees and cardboard Japs who bobbed out of the scrub at the tug of a cord . She’d do just about anything but come to my whistle”
