From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The Owen gun, known officially as the Owen machine carbine, was an Australian sub machine gun designed by Evelyn Owen in 1938. The Owen was the only entirely Australian-designed and constructed service sub machine gun of World War II and was used by the Australian Army from 1942 until 1971.

The first prototype of the Owen gun was developed by Evelyn Owen in 1931, who finalized the design in 1938.[2] Owen submitted the design to the Australian military, but was rejected, as they were waiting for the British Sten to finish development.[3] By May 1940, Owen had enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force, and was set to deploy to the Middle East, but after speaking about his design to the manager of a local plant of Lysaght, who had an interest in the design, Owen was transferred to the Central Inventions Board.[2] In June 1941, Owen was discharged from the army and began to manufacture the Owen gun. After conducting tests in September that year, the Owen was found to be more accurate and reliable than competing designs such as the Sten and Thompson.[2]

The Owen went into production at the John Lysaght factories at Port Kembla and Newcastle. Between March 1942 and February 1943, Lysaght's produced 28,000 Owen guns. However, the initial batch of ammunition turned out to be the wrong type and 10,000 guns could not be supplied with ammunition. Once again the government overrode military bureaucracy, and took the ammunition through the final production stages and into the hands of Australian troops, at that time fighting Japanese forces in New Guinea. Approximately 45,000 Owens were produced from 1942 to 1944.[4] Contemporary sources vary as to the cost of production during wartime, with some suggesting that the basic cost was as little as A£8 (US$24); a 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics claimed that the Owen cost US$30 (A£12).[5]
Australian soldiers armed with Owen guns in New Britain, April 1945

The Owen gun proved popular with soldiers in the Pacific.[3] New Zealanders fighting in the Guadalcanal and Solomon Islands campaigns swapped their Thompsons for Owens, as they found Owen guns to be more reliable.[6] During the gun's life, its reliability earned it the nickname "Digger's Darling" by Australian troops,[7] and many of the Australian soldiers who had used the Owen came back to personally thank the Lysaght team as they believed the Owen had saved their lives.[8] General Douglas MacArthur considered equipping American troops in the Pacific with the Owen.[3]

The Owen was later used by Australian troops in the Korean and Vietnam Wars,[3] particularly the scouts in infantry sections. It remained a standard weapon of the Australian Army until 1971,[3] when it was replaced by the F1 submachine gun and, later, the M16.[7]

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