Owen Machine Carbine (OMC) (Owen Sub-machine Gun)

History of the Owen Machine Carbine (OMC) (Owen Sub-machine Gun)

Australian made, active service in 5 "wars" and very effective.

The Own gun could be fired from the shoulder or the hip.

In July 1939 a 24 year old by the name of Evelyn Owen took his prototype of a .22 calibre submachine gun (sometimes called a machine carbine) to the Victoria Barracks in Sydney.

Evelyn Owen (right) >>

It was inspected by Ordnance Officers. It could be made with little special equipment using the parts from a .22 calibre rifle.

The Officers told Owen that in would not be accepted by the Army because it was .22 calibre. Owen said that the gun could be easily adapted to larger calibres and that he only chose .22 for convenience.

The gun was rejected because, before World War II the Australia Army did not realise that the submachine gun was very important in attacking and defensive roles.

Also, the British Army hadn't adopted the submachine gun into their Army, but . . . the war started, we needed weapons and more importantly

we needed jungle fighting weapons, so . . . .

The Owen went into production about mid 1941, with about 50,000 produced by 1945.

Owen Submachine Gun .22 Prototype (version 1). This weapon has been home made from mainly .22 (short) calibre rifle parts but has a "wheel" drum magazine operated by a coil spring, that takes 44 cartridges and has a trigger made from a piece of spring steel above the stock wrist.

This weapon was made by Evelyn Owen as prototype to the later Owen sub-machine gun made at Lysaghts Factory, Port Kembla, New South Wales. AWM text and image

Although quite large and bulky, the Owen was a first-class gun and very popular with those who used it.It stood up well to the hard conditions of jungle fighting and stoppages were remarkably rare.

Its two outstanding features were the top mounted magazine -- a feature rarely seen on submachine-guns since the Villar Perosa -- and the provision of a separate bolt compartment inside the receiver so that the bolt was isolated from its retracting handle by a small bulkhead, through which passed the small diameter bolt.

This ensured that dirt and mud did not jam the bolt and it was highly successful, although expensive in terms of space.

Two other unusual mechanical features: the ejector is built into the magazine rather than into the gun body, and the barrel is rapidly removable by pulling up on a spring-loaded plunger just ahead of the magazine housing.

The latter feature is necessary since, due to the method of assembly and construction, the gun can only be dismantled by removing the barrel and then taking out the bolt and return spring in a forward direction.

This gun is the second experimental model Owen and is the original made at the Lysaght's factory. 33-round detachable vertical staggered box magazine; Off-set aperture; Off-set barleycorn; Experimental Owen Submachine Gun. It has a wooden butt and pistol grip but the foregrip is a dark red plastic screwed to the barrel. The .32 calibre barrel with its muzzle compensator is held in place by a spring clip on the underside of the action body although there is a provision for it be held in place with a threaded sleeve. The magazine, that takes 30 rounds, is mounted on the left side and is angled towards the rear. The butt and trigger mechanism can be released by a spring clip on the right side of the action body.

The OMC stayed in service through Korea (where the extra distances and the extra bulky padded winter clothing of the enemy worked against it) and in the early days of Vietnam. It was replaced by a newer less efficient model, the F1, in the 1960's and that was quickly replaced by the American made Colt AR15 (M16) Armalite.
Experimental Owen Mk II Submachine Gun. Trigger right hand side plate is marked XP OWEN MKII 43 9MM AUSTRALIA PAT PENDING and the serial number. This weapon, magazine and bayonet with leather sheath are painted in green and yellow camouflage. The butt on this model is detachable by unscrewing a knurled knob into the bottom of the action.
The two pistol grips are made from a brown speckled plastic compound. The barrel does not have any cooling fins in front of the breech. The bayonet has a wooden, two piece grip with a tubular top socket that fits over the muzzle suppressor. A spring clip in the pommel secures the bayonet to the gun. The 6 inch (15.2 mm) blade is blued with a full length sharpened lower edge and front top edge to about 2 inches (30 mm). The scabbard is made from green leather, stitched on both sides for the blade and has a retaining press stud strap for the handle through the belt loop. This weapon has a khaki webbing SMLE rifle sling attached to the swivels. The Department of Army requested the development of a lighter Owen Gun, so a prototype Mark II was produced in October 1942. The changes included a lighter butt, trigger mechanism and a barrel without fins. Approximately 200 were produced for troop trials. AWM text and image

	This is a third experimental model Owen Submachine Gun.This weapon has no markings. The action has the cocking handle and the magazine feed on the top necessitating offset sights to the right. The barrel is in .45 inch calibre, which is secured to the action by a spring loaded locking pin, and has a fluted knox form and a muzzle compensator.
The butt is wood and the two pistol grips are made from a brown 'plastic' compound. The barrel is made from a Martini Henry rifle barrel.

Experimental Owen submachine gun fourth model. The trigger assembly is stamped OWEN .38 LYSAGHT P.K. PATENT PENDING 4. The action and barrel are similar to the third model with the cocking handle and magazine slot on the top of the action. The calibre is .38 inch. The butt is wood and has Lee-Enfield sling swivels attached to the left side and front pistol grip.
A web sling is attached to the swivels. The two pistol grips are made from a brown 'plastic' compound. The sights are offset to the right. This weapon is the fourth type of experimental Owen gun and it is believed that four of this model were made for experimental trials at the Lysaghts factory in .38 calibre. AWM image and text.

	This experimental fifth model gun was to become the first of the Mk 1 Model Owen guns to be made at the Lysaght's factory at Port Kembla. Experimental 9mm Mk1 Owen Submachine Gun fifth model. Trigger box stamped 9mm. OWEN LYSAGHT P.K. PATENT PENDING 1.
The action is similar to the .38 calibre fourth model with the long body and barrel. It has also the same style of wooden butt and brown plastic compound pistol grips. Lee-Enfield sling swivels are attached to the left side of the butt and front pistol grip. A webbing sling is fitted to this weapon.

Owen Mk 1 (full production) Submachine Gun. The cut away trigger box is stamped OWEN 9MM. MK I - 43 on the top and LYSAGHT PK. AUSTRALIA PAT. PENDING on the lower arm. This gun was originally painted green as traces are still in the trigger area but the paint has been stripped off leaving a parkerised finish.
The serial number is stamped on the top of the action. The butt is the skeleton frame type with a clip for an oil bottle. This weapon is fitted with a khaki webbing sling and is complete with a magazine. This gun is in Second World War configuration and has not been refurbished with a safety catch.

Owen Mk 2/3 (Full production) Submachine Gun. The trigger box has two lightening cuts to each side.

The Right side is stamped MK 2/3 OWEN 9MM. MKII (crossed out) 43 on the top rail and LYSAGHT PK. AUSTRALIA PAT. PENDING on the bottom rail.

A letter 'C' in white paint is on the right side in front of the butt. The serial number is stamped on the top of the receiver over 10/50/F. This weapon is painted all over (including the magazine) in a khaki/green camoflage colour. The detachable butt is wood with plain sides. It has a new Mk 3 reinforced barrel with a bayonet lug as well as an external rotating sleeve safety device at the rear of the action.

1942-05-18. Every Owen gun undergoes tests including a penetration test.

Bullets are fired at 7 by 1 inch hardwood boards of which they must penetrate 5 or more.

The target on the left is for testing the sights.

1942-05-18. The various parts of an Owen gun.

These fit together by simple bayonet catches.

Since Owen guns are precision made a damaged part can be replaced in a few seconds.

Wondecla area, Qld. 1944-05-06. NX9062 Private L.N. Showmark of the 2/2nd Infantry Battalion demonstrates the new improved double magazine for the Owen gun.

This magazine was tested by the Unit and adopted after being modified by NX70981 Captain Andrew Watson, Officer Commanding "C" Company.

Tarakan Island, Borneo. 1945-09-10. Major A. J. Anderson, General Service Equipment Field Section, 9th Division, demonstrating an Owen gun with a new type silencer which is to be issued to 2/23rd Infantry Battalion.

Moratai 1945-05-05. Private E. Cutts, (left), watches Pte A Hughes, (right), fit an adapted magazine he made for the Owen gun. The magazine contains 72 rounds. assistes sighting and counteracts the upward thrust of the gun when fired. The men are members of 2/43 Infantry Battalion.

The 5 "war" submachine gun.

The Owen gun saw active service in WW2, Korean War, The Malayan Emergency, "Confrontation" in Borneo and in the Vietnam War.

Finschhafen, New Guinea. 11 November 1943. In a forward post near Scarlet Beach, Corporal R. J. Tongue of Hay, NSW, fills magazines of his Owen gun from the bullets lying on the groundsheet. >>

^^^Around Hill 159, Korea. Private (Pte) Dick Gray of St Peters, NSW, smoking a cigarette, wearing an armoured vest, a sweat rag cap and grease paint and carrying his Owen gun.

Pte Gray is a member of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) and preparing to go out on a night-time patrol towards the enemy lines.

An un-named second scout of a 3RAR patrol, armed with an OMC crossing a bridge over a river in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency.

A dawn vigil for two un-named 3RAR Diggers armed with OMCs on border security operations in Sarawak during "Confrontation".

Vietnam. 1966-06-25. Aboriginal Corporal Henry "Buddy" Lea of Rockhampton, Qld, moves cautiously into a Viet Cong village with his Owen gun at the ready during the first mission by the 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR), Operation Enoggera.

FIGHTING LADY (Owen Machine Carbine, OMC, Owen Gun)

"LOOK after her well! " he said, as he handed her to me, "and she'll never let you down when you're in trouble. Study her and get to know her ways - after you've lived with her for a while, you'll find she's your best friend."

The phrase sounded vaguely familiar; they'd told me the same thing about a rifle, long and slim and deadly, when I first joined up, and then about a Tommy gun, short and squat and ugly, and now they were saying it about this-this bit of wood and iron, roughly painted yellow and green and about as substantial-looking as the fairy off the top of the Christmas-tree. Well ...

It all began years ago, in Port Kembla in New South Wales, when a young plasterboard manufacturer, working in a tin shed in his spare time, dreamed up out of the years of experience he'd gained as a hobbyist gun-maker something which he thought would be just the thing in case there was a war. So he laboured lovingly to perfect his design, roughed out a working model and submitted his baby to the Army.

But that was before the war and, as the Navy, Army, Air and Munitions journal of the day succinctly puts it, "its merit was not immediately recognized". A masterpiece of understatement! Evelyn Owen, the inventor, was on his final leave before going overseas in the A.I.F. when he was recalled to demonstrate the weapon he had offered years before.

She passed the most gruelling tests with flying colours, and rightly claimed superiority over the American Tommy gun, the German Bergmann used by the vaunted Nazi paratroopers, and the British Sten. During those tests handfuls of sand were thrown over the gun to simulate desert conditions, and it continued to fire when the Thompson and the Sten jammed; when buried in a heap of sand the Owen gun was the only one of the three to continue firing; when plunged into a tub of water it fired more evenly than either of the other types. In its final tests, submerged in a mud-bath, it continued to operate after the others had stopped.

She had only three movable parts as opposed to twenty in a Tommy gun, and if she only had a shanghai range, so what? A man needed pretty good eyes to see more than fifty yards in the jungles that were to become her stamping ground! You could knock her to pieces-and what comically rough pieces they were!-in a matter of seconds, and slap her together again as quickly, jam a mag on her and she'd fire until hell froze over. And the cost of her -a mere six pounds against the sixty the Government paid for every one of the boat-loads of Tommy guns that found their way into the jungly islands up north. So you dropped your tacky little Owen in the river? You could drop nine more before you lost the price of one Thompson!

They gave her to me before I left Townsville for the Islands-Owen gun No. 213821. She was covered in grease and packed in a flimsy cardboard carton like a child's Meccano set. She was in pieces, but a little booklet in the carton gave me the good word and in no time I had her assembled. 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 skepticism implanted by the sergeant's words. Best friend ...

She was all of that. 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 (other than an earthquake), 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, and she'd do just about anything but come to my whistle.

She never left my side after that-during the day she rode comfortably on my hip, and at night she slept with her muzzle awake across two forked sticks by my bed, her fighting nose pointed towards danger, just where I could lean out and give her the office to spit her ugly little slugs out at about six hundred per. And when the war finished and the time came for me to hand her into whatever oblivion of grease and uselessness overtakes weapons in peace time, 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.

Well, perhaps I was a little sentimental; but there was many another like me who hated to part with his Owen and who'd still like to shake the hand that first fashioned the matchless little fighter that did so much towards winning the war for us in the South-West Pacific.

Evelyn Owen died on I April '49 in the Wollongong District Hospital after a short illness. He was thirty-five years of age.

W. ETHERIDGE, SECOND A.I.F.