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allan View Drop Down
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    Posted: June 16 2007 at 6:08pm
well this months  World War 11  magazine has a page on the Aussie Owen Gun, Knowing it was invented by a local guy(from the gong, -Albion Park) I thought you guys might like to read  some info on it..heres a link
 
 
 
'SAVIOUR OF OUR SKIES BOYO!'
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote allan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 16 2007 at 6:19pm

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.

'SAVIOUR OF OUR SKIES BOYO!'
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hatchetman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 17 2007 at 2:31pm
If I remember correctly, dave was rather fond of his owen gun when he was over at "the garden party", I would like to hear what he has to say about them. 
But the winters coming,

And the snow will cover tracks,

And I'll be watching,

Because I'm hunting you



- Sarah Blasko, The Gardens End
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allan View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote allan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 17 2007 at 4:57pm

where is dave?? those slave drivers will have him in a retirement village soon.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hoadie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 17 2007 at 5:56pm
I think he & Tony eloped!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lost Kangaroo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 18 2007 at 5:23am
I have shot them, good fun....I can't remember clearly, but I think the F-1 was either the next variation or loosely based on the Owen, shot them too. They definitely seemed lightweight and potentially underpowered....until you factor in the rate of fire......put that much hot lead downrange fast and you will see why you would think of it as your best friend!! Especially effective in close, jungle quarters...
If Dave used the Owen, I hope it was in .45. They came in 9mm and even .22!!
I am pretty sure the one I "tried out" was a .45, seem to remember short stubby rounds that packed a pretty good punch
I also remember my first time shooting the F1, I managed to saw off the head of a wooden silhouette target!!
Good times..



 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 21 2007 at 9:17pm
The Owen Gun was the greatest peice of life insurance ever built ! It was supposed to have been retired in the early 60s,but due to a shortage of F1s (thank god ) Many of us carried the Owen into the Garden party ! It was also  able to be fitted with a 50 shot Mag which was almost like a circle stiking out the top (we were never issued with these thank god ) & it could also be fitted with a silencer! Yes they were indestructable & never let you down ! The only problem with them was if cocked they had a nasty habit of going off! You jumped out of a Chopper & they would discharge ,same with a truck & for several users over the years sitting down & thumping it stock first into the ground between your legs ! The F1 by the same account ? well the best thing they did with those heaps of sh*t was to fit em with a Bayonet lug so you could throw em like a spear ! Both were 9mm !

       I would also like to mention at this Point that  OWEN who did so much for his country! Died Bankrupt, due to the gratitude of the Government who swindled him blind ! This is the Same gov that fought tooth & Nail to stop him developing the Gun . As they had already brought the rights fora inferiour  Weapon from the British ,the AUSTEN (australian Sten )

        Dave ........God Bless Evelyn Owen & the Lysart Brothers  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2007 at 5:37am
The old sten was a bugger for ADs. 1 guy dropped out the lorry clipped the but on the tailgate and yours truly was ducking 9mm. The old guardian angel was working overime that day!
Rottie (PitBulls dad.)


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hoadie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2007 at 8:42am
The late Robert Camp (Sr) -RSM Red Devils - recounted times like that re: the Sten(aka:Room Broom).He had a guy jump out the back of a lorrie with the Sten round his neck.When he hit the ground the damn thing went off & "ventilated" the lad's head standin next to him!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hatchetman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2007 at 3:15pm
I guess it would be best to have a round down the spout then if you go jumping out of things.

What was the owen made out of? stamped steel?

I wonder if the fitters at work could knock one up for me?
But the winters coming,

And the snow will cover tracks,

And I'll be watching,

Because I'm hunting you



- Sarah Blasko, The Gardens End
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2007 at 6:55pm
Originally posted by Hatchetman Hatchetman wrote:

I guess it would be best to have a round down the spout then if you go jumping out of things.

What was the owen made out of? stamped steel?

I wonder if the fitters at work could knock one up for me?


   Yeah Mate! They were as cheap as Cockie sh*t to manufacure 6pounds compared with 60 pounds for a Thompson! But it took from 1939 to 1942 & prototypes starting  at .22,.32,.38 S&,.45 & finarly 9mm !

    You never chambered a round until you were safely on the ground! I will never forget my  Introduction to  the OWEN  ! We were told it was a Ammo Hungry  Chatter Box that was garenteed to run dry just as the situation got truely interesting ! By Jeez though you felt 10 ft tall & bullet proof carrying one though !

       Dave
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2007 at 9:58pm

1 thing you never did was jump with a loaded weapon hatchet ( ie round up the spout) . Lots of folks rely on safety catches thinking they are infallible until you get caught out and somebody cops a round. 

The old sten was manufactured as an answer to the German MP40 and fired a 9mm parabellum round. So the resistance had an ample supply of ammo if they raided german ammo dumps. If the germans wanted their bullets back the resistance let em have em  Big%20smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hatchetman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 24 2007 at 4:04pm
Back in my air force cadet days I was on a GST camp and along with about 90 other cadets were staying out at Williamtown air force base, just outside Newcastle.

Any way the "higher ups" decided we should all hop onto buses and go out to singleton army barracks to see the Museum of Infantry. It was a day that the museum is not normally open so the armourers there got out some of the display pieces.

They had everything from the Steyr and Minimi to the Lee-enfield, Martini and owen.

I got to have a fiddle around with a BREN which was pretty good.

But back on topic, they had examples of the Thompson and Owen laying side by said and I picked them both up, and the Thompson weighed a bloody ton!

I then picked up the Owen, and even if the whole magazine sticking out the top of the SMG was weird, the Owen felt like it weighed at least half as much, and still felt solid and dependable.

I would have loved to have a shot but sadly they were all museum pieces.
But the winters coming,

And the snow will cover tracks,

And I'll be watching,

Because I'm hunting you



- Sarah Blasko, The Gardens End
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