The Owen Submachine Gun, The Australian gun designed by a teenager.First produced in 1943, the Owen

The Owen Submachine Gun, The Australian gun designed by a teenager.First produced in 1943, the Owen submachine gun was the only firearm produced by Australia during World War II.  Invented by Evelyn Owen, the weapons was rugged, reliable, deadly, and specially able to handle combat in the dense jungles New Guinea and Indonesia.  During the war they were issued to both Australian and American soldiers under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.  From both the weapon was well received by both because of its usefulness in jungle fighting.  Firing from a blowback operated open bolt, it utilized a top mounted 33 round detachable magazine.  Iron sights were mounted on the left hand side of the receiver.   They were chambered for both 9mm (used by the Australian Army) and .45acp (used by the US Army).  Since the Owen gun used a simple operating mechanism and was built from simple materials such as stamped sheet steel, it was very easy to mass produce.  This was important because at the time Australia had very little industry.  Regardless between 1942 and 1944 around 45,000 were produced and issued.  The served in World War II, the Malayan Emergency, Korea, Vietnam, and the Rhodesian Bush War.  They were discontinued by the Australian Army by 1970.Interestingly enough, the Owen gun was designed by a teenager, and almost never came to be.  In 1931, at the age of 15, Evelyn Owen began to design his submachine gun.  In 1939 he demonstrated the firearms to the Australian Army, who at the time didn’t see any value in submachine guns.  The narrow sighted ordnance officials, most of whom were veterans of World War I, only cared about bolt action rifles.  Owen hid the gun away in storage, and joined the army as a private at the start of the war.  Later, in 1940, Owens neighbor Vincent Wardell discovered the weapon.  Impressed by the simplicity of the design Wardell convinced the Army and Government to take a second look.  The Army again rejected the design, but was overruled by the Minister of the Army, Percy Spencer.  The Owen gun was rigorously tested, and finally approved for manufacture in 1942.Evelyn Owen (pictured below) sold the patent rights of the gun to the Australian Government of £10,000.  Owen used the money to build a sawmill, which he operated for the rest of his short life.  Unfortunately he died of cardiac syncope in 1949 at the age of 33. -- source link

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