Two soldiers with a Bren gun and the Owen gun (right)

Australian-made Owen machine gun

Australians with Owen guns in 1945

The Owen Machine Carbine Gun went into production about mid 1941, with about 50,000 produced by 1945. Although quite large and bulky, the Owen was a first-class gun and very popular with those who used it, for it stood up well to the hard conditions of jungle fighting and stoppages were remarkably rare.

The Owen Machine Gun's 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.

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