THE OWEN GUN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24737, 14 October 1941, Page 9

THE OWEN GUN

AUTOMATIC WEAPON AUSTRALIAN'S INVENTION AMAZING PERFORMANCE -5 — (Air Mail) SYDNEY, Oct. 1. A romantic story lies behind the invention of the Owen sub-machine gun, which was j designed by a 27-year-old Australian*. i and which last Monday overshadowed similar types of American and British weapons in exacting tests in Sydney. It is a storv of triumph over official army complacency and reserve, of: two soldier brothers in Tobruk giving encouragement to the inventor, and finally of a small group of patriotic business men whose faith in the gun forced the authorities to recoenise its possibilities. The year, war broke. Evelyn Owen son of a solicitor at Wollongong (50 miles south' of Sydney), where he had a ready-mixed mortar plant, submitted a sub-machine gun of .22 calibre, which he had designed, to the military authorities in Sydney. They rejected it. saying', that there was no use for sub-machine guns. Discouraged. Owen enlisted in the A.I.F. nine months ago v/iih his two brothers, Peter and Julian. They were on final leave when Mr V. A, Warden (manager) and Mr G. S. Wardell (chief engineer) of Lysaehts, Ltd.. a big metal works company, heijrd of Owen's gun Seized with its -'] possibilities, they suceeeded in interesting the Minister for the Army, Mr Spender, who had Owen released from the army to resume work on his design. Owen was transferred to the Inventions Board, Melbourne. He was , further encouraged in his efforts by persistent letters from Peter and JuJian. who h\d been sent to Tobruk "Always' in my thoughts was the hope that I Would be able to put my invention finally Into the hands of mv brothers facing the Germans at Tobruk," said Owen "Thev kept writine to me demanding. 'When are you going to give >us that pun? It's badlv needed over here.'* \ Standard Weapons Surpassed Wheijr his design was completed. Owen '\ and his sponsors interviewed Mr Spender, who presented them to a meeting of Cabinet Ministers to put their plea. As a result 100 Owen sub-machine-guns were ordered for trial purposes, and it was one of these, picked at random by Mr Spender, that was tested against the American Thompson gun and the British Sten gun. : Equalling them for accuracy of fire, 'it surpassed' them in "bad weather" tests. To simulate desert conditions, handfuls of sand were thrown over the gun as it was being fired. It continued to fire normally, while both British and I American guns jammed. When all three guns were subjected to the test of being, buried in a heap of sand the Owen gun was the only one to continue firing automatically. Immersed in water before firing, the Owen gun > continued to fire more evenly than either the British or the American guns: Thrown into a mud bath, the Owen gun continued to fire automatically and, normally, whereas the British and American guns faltered. The Owen gun has other advan tages over its' rivals. It can be produced at a cost of £6. against £6O for ithe Thompson, and weighs only lOJlb. which is lighter than the Thompson. It has a clip of 30 cartridges, which can be fired in a threQsecond burst or singly. If the musketry experts' report is favourablej—and they seemed greatly impressed by the trials—Mr Spender said the'Owen gun will be mass-produced to equip Australian units and probably other British troops. ' Boyhood Interest in Guns : The next few days will be anxious "onea for Owen; but he is quietly confident of what the report will be. He has been interested in guns since a small boy, when, in his father's tiny wprkshop, he tinkered with toy pistols. At the age of 13 he thought out the idea of making a bomb from a sparklet bulb, which he filled with cordite. He put what he thought was a long enough fuse on it, but apparently he stood too close when he fired it. The flying fragments entered his body, inflicting painful injuries to his stomach. He still has the scars.

■■" My .parents were very concern?d," Owen< said, "but admitted that they had .expected something of the sort to happen as a result of my wild experiments. About a year later I attempted to make a pistol, using a .22 rlfls barrel and a bolt of my own invention. I had it loaded and in a vyce, but, unfortunately, the wrong end was facing me. As I leaned over to make some adjustment there was a sudden roar as the gun went off and a bullet went through the side of my stomach and came out again. I was no whit discouraged, and continued with my experiments." Prior to the war. Owen made tests with ordinary service ammunition in .•the hope of adapting it to an automatic rifle he had devised, and it was not long afterwards that he succeeded tyith the gun he first took to the army authorities.