The Owen Gun: Australia's Best Submachine Gun
Channel: Calvin The Carnotaurus
Date: 2023-04-24

Noted errors/additional information:

The Owen gun’s depiction in some films, shows, games and other media is inaccurate, due to them showing parkerized Owens. In reality, Owen guns were painted to be to suit whatever environment soldiers were fighting in. It was only after the war when they got the style you see in games like Enlisted, due to them being stripped on their original camos.

According to one source, Vincent took the gun to his house before talking to Evelyn Owen’s father about it, who reportedly ranted about his son’s lack of responsibility for leaving a firearm laying around outside.

The gun also appears in the VR game “Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades.”

The main reason the military weren’t keen to adopt the Owen gun wasn’t just due to senior officers preferring the Sten or seeing no need to SMGs, but also because they didn’t want to ruin delivery of an official SMG for Australia by bringing in outside competition.

Although they only produced 50,000 Owens throughout 1941-1944, orders were placed by one general McArthur for Lysaght and Lithgow Small Arms Factory to produce an extra 60,000 of them to be used by his soldiers in the Pacific, but this order was never fulfilled due to Australia not having the resources needed to produce such an amount.

Forgottenweapons.com actually says that multiple variants were made, but by the time Vietnam rolled around, most Owens had a mixture of parts from different models due to cannibalization.

Sources used:

https://guns.fandom.com/wiki/Owen_gun

https://guns.fandom.com/wiki/Evelyn_Owen

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C242458

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/submachine-guns/owen-smg/

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/australias-owen-gun/

https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/heritage/owen-submachine-gun

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Owen_Submachine_Gun

https://gunivore.com/ammunition/9mm-bullet-9x19mm-parabellum-definitive-guide/

http://www.koreanwaronline.com/arms/owen.htm

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/02/03/evelyn-owens-homebuilt-22-smg/

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/02/03/made-in-australia-the-owen-submachine-gun/

Videos referenced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmAigxjQbtE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1aZuAbgjGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_3AoDf7CeE

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/owen-gun-issue-title-is-account-rendered/query/Wet

Other images used:

https://www.deviantart.com/marcusburns1977/art/Owen-Gun-799989710

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1040139

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C256325

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/prototypeowens.jpg

https://gunivore.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2-5.png

https://gunivore.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/1-7.png

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Owen-diagram.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Owen_MkI_1942.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Owen-gun_400.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Owen_Mk1-44.jpg

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C242458

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/027530

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:DangerClose_poster.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:TheRailwayMan.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Kokodaabc.jpeg

https://www.imfdb.org/images/4/40/LongTan.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/images/2/20/CB_AU_DVD_cover.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Wog_logo.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Heroes_%26_Generals_Logo.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Dayofinfamy.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:RS2_logo.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Codvanguardcover1.jpg

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Enlisted_Logo.jpg

https://www.charlieintel.com/best-vanguard-owen-gun-loadout-2/168396/