Owen Gun [SEP] service entry
the higher levels of government that the army ordered the 9×19mm variant.
During the gun's life, its reliability earned it the nickname "Digger's Darling" by Australian troops, and it was rumoured to be highly favoured by US troops. General Douglas MacArthur proposed placing an order for some 45,000.
Production and use.
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
Owen Gun
The Owen Gun, which was known officially as the Owen Machine Carbine, was an Australian submachine gun designed by Evelyn Owen in 1939. The Owen was the only entirely Australian-designed and constructed service submachine gun of World War II and was used by the Australian Army from 1943 until the mid-1960s.
History.
Owen, an inventor from Wollongong, was 24 years old in July 1939 when he demonstrated his prototype .22 calibre "Machine Carbine" to Australian Army ordnance officers at Victoria Barracks in Sydney.