In 1942, the Owen submachine gun was adopted by the Australian army. This weapon was actively used during the Second World War and some conflicts in subsequent decades. Owen's submachine gun was distinguished by a simple but successful design, which ensured the maximum cheapness of production with decent fighting qualities. However, this design did not appear immediately. Before its creation, the author of the project developed a less successful model of small arms, which, however, is of great interest from the point of view of history and technology.
Self-taught gunsmith Evelyn Owen began working on promising small arms systems in the late thirties. In 1939, at the age of 24, he independently completed the development of his first submachine gun, and then, without any outside help, made a prototype of this weapon. All parts of the submachine gun were made by Owen in his own workshop. Despite such an artisanal origin, the finished sample turned out to be quite interesting, but a number of ambiguous decisions did not allow the project to move beyond prototype testing.
Creating a new weapon, E. Owen planned to develop the most simple system that could be produced in large quantities at the lowest possible cost. At the same time, it was argued, its architecture of the submachine gun could be modified to use different types of cartridges. Nevertheless, to solve these problems, the self-taught designer used not the most successful and worthy ideas, which ultimately affected the further fate of the project.
General view of E. Owen's submachine gun
Owen's lack of sophisticated equipment affected the appearance of the experienced submachine gun. Outwardly, it resembled some similar developments of that time, but the ideas used led to a lot of serious differences. For example, Owen used an original design for wood fittings. Its main element was a stock, combined with a butt and having a pistol protrusion. The stock was taken from an existing factory-made weapon. When assembling the submachine gun, Owen cut off its front end, and also equipped it with an additional handle. It was assumed that the hand of the shooter, controlling the fire, will lie on the neck of the butt, while the handle will be used to hold the weapon with the other hand.
On the upper surface of the box was a receiver, which consisted of two parts. The lower one was fixed on the bed, and the upper one had a U-shaped section and was a cover that held all the internal parts in place. All metal parts of the experimental submachine gun had an extremely simple design and were connected or fastened with bolts and other similar products. This feature of the weapon was due to technological limitations associated with equipping the gunsmith's workshop.
The automation of the prototype weapon was based on the principle of a free shutter. Inside the receiver was a cylindrical movable bolt with a reciprocating mainspring. E. Owen proposed an extremely simple design of the shutter and firing mechanism, which could be made in his workshop. The shutter was made in the form of a cylinder with a striker at one of the ends. The second end was connected with a relatively long rod passing through the return-mainspring. At the free end of this rod, there was a flat plate - the bolt handle. The latter had a small cutout on the upper edge and, apparently, was to be used as a rear sight. To cocking the weapon, it was necessary to pull such a rear sight back. In addition, when firing, he moved back and forth.
Receiver and magazine, right side view
The trigger mechanism consisted of only one part, which simultaneously served as a trigger and sear. Behind the receiver, on the upper surface of the butt neck, a special curved leaf spring was fixed with a screw, in the middle of which there was a protrusion. When moving back, the bolt handle, combined with the whole, bent the spring down, and then clung to its stop. To fire a shot, it was necessary to press the spring to the butt and thereby release the bolt handle.
The barrel of.22 caliber (5.6 mm) was welded to the long upper part of the receiver. This was one of the few welded joints in the entire prototype design. The barrel was located with some offset relative to the receiver. In addition, in the area of its breech, only the upper part of the latter was present, and the side parts ended at some distance from it. This barrel location was due to the unusual ammunition system used by Owen.
It can be assumed that the design of the ammunition supply system, like other features of the experienced submachine gun, was primarily due to technological problems. Probably not being able to make a relatively convenient detachable box or drum magazine, E. Owen was forced to make a system similar to that used on revolvers.
Receiver and magazine, left view
The front wall of the receiver with a hole for bringing the bolt outward had a great height and protruded beyond the lower surface of the box. There was another hole in its lower part. A similar piece was attached to the breech of the barrel. In the holes of these two strips of metal entered the axis of the drum, like a revolver.
The fixed magazine of the submachine gun was a metal ring with 44 chambers for.22 LR cartridges. There was a Y-shaped piece inside the ring for installation on the central axis. In addition to the store, a spring, similar to a watch, was attached to the axis. It should have been twisted when equipping the store, so that when firing, she could turn it and feed the next cartridge. In order to avoid the loss of cartridges on the rear surface of the store, a ring made of metal of small thickness was provided. In the area of the breech of the barrel there was a corner responsible for holding the cartridge when firing. On the left surface of the receiver, an L-shaped spring was provided, fixed at the rear of this unit. According to some reports, it was used by the cartridge supply system.
Owen's experienced submachine gun had extremely simple sights. A welded front sight was located near the muzzle of the barrel, and it was proposed to use a movable bolt handle with a cutout as a rear sight. Given the artisanal nature of the development and assembly, as well as the characteristics of the cartridge, such sighting devices can in no way be blamed for the deterioration of the accuracy of fire.
Receiver, top view
When preparing a submachine gun for use, the shooter had to open the lock of the back cover of the store and place 44 rounds in the chambers. After that, the lid was returned to its place, and the spring, which was responsible for turning the magazine, was cocked. After that, it was necessary to cock the weapon by pulling the bolt handle and hooking it onto the stop of the leaf spring. Safety devices were not provided, therefore, after cocking the shutter, it was immediately possible to fire.
Pressing the spring, which served as the trigger, released the shutter. Under the action of the reciprocating mainspring, it was displaced forward and led to the ignition of the propellant charge of the cartridge. In addition, he shifted to the side the L-shaped spring located on the left wall of the receiver. Under the action of the recoil of the shot, the bolt went back, compressed the spring and reached the extreme rear position, in which it was fixed due to the interaction of the handle and the stop on the trigger spring. At the same time, the magazine was being prepared for the next shot.
According to reports, no systems for extracting a cartridge or a spent cartridge case from the drum were provided. Moving back, the bolt released the side L-shaped spring. Through a simple linkage system, it influenced the magazine ratchet and allowed the latter to turn 1/44 of a full turn. In this case, the weapon was ready to fire. For the next shot, it was necessary to press the trigger spring again. No means of changing the mode of fire were provided, a submachine gun could only fire in a burst. At the same time, shooting in single or short bursts was not ruled out, but in this case, a certain skill was required from the shooter.
Barrel and drum for ammunition
In 1939, Evelyn Owen was able to demonstrate his design to representatives of the Australian army. He pointed to the obvious advantages in the form of simplicity and low cost of construction, and also noted the possibility of a relatively simple conversion of weapons to the desired cartridge. Perhaps he hoped that such advantages of the design he developed would interest the military, making it possible to continue work on promising weapons.
Representatives of the military department, not without interest, familiarized themselves with the development of a self-taught gunsmith and praised his enthusiasm. On this, however, and stopped. In its current form, as well as after some possible modifications, E. Owen's submachine gun could not have high performance and, as a result, was not of interest to the army.
Owen's workshop was not well equipped, which is why the young gunsmith had to use a lot of compromise and, as a result, strange or incorrect ideas. For example, the firing mechanism proposed by him based on a leaf spring with an emphasis was not very reliable, and under certain circumstances it even posed a danger to the soldier and his comrades. Naturally, the design of this unit could be improved, but in this case, it was necessary to radically rework several weapon assemblies at once, with their subsequent complication.
Top-back view of the submachine gun
The second weak point of the project was the drum magazine with a turn due to a separate spring. The design proposed by Owen ensured the fulfillment of the assigned tasks, but did not differ in convenience and reliability. For example, to reload the magazine, it was required to remove the back cover, knock out all 44 spent cartridges with a ramrod, and then put 44 new cartridges in their place. The reload time could only be reduced by using automatic mechanisms for removing the cartridge and ejecting spent cartridges. The introduction of such devices without major design changes was impossible.
At that time, many different small arms projects were proposed, both Australian and foreign design. Thus, the improvement of E. Owen's self-taught project did not make sense. The military department could order any other weapon that has already passed all the necessary tests and improvements. The young designer was praised, and then said goodbye to him. In connection with this failure, for some time he lost interest in the creation of small arms and enlisted in the army. However, Owen's career as a gunsmith did not end there. Literally a couple of years after joining the service, he began work on a new version of a promising submachine gun.
While working on his first project, E. Owen independently assembled only one prototype of a new weapon, which was used in tests and demonstrated to the military. After the refusal of the military, this prototype was not disposed of. It has survived to this day and is now an exhibit at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
