POTD: Aussie WWII Ingenuity – The Austen Submachine Gun
Sam.S 06.10.24
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Developed during WWII, “The Austen” was an Australian 9mm submachine gun that incorporated features from the British Sten and German MP40 designs. Of this gun type, approximately 19,914 units were produced mainly by Die Casters Ltd and W.T. Carmichael Ltd who used die-cast aluminum to make magazine housing, forward grip as well as MP40-style folding stock and bolt system. They were intended to improve on it but they lack quality thereby never attaining the dependability of Australian -made Owen submachine gun. The Austen was not used often because it suffered from reliability problems that made it inferior to the latter. With only a few examples remaining in existence as collectibles, today the Austen is regarded as a rare World War II machine gun.
“This is a very scarce early WWII AUSTEN submachine gun as manufactured in 1942/43 in Australia. These weapons were developed by the Australian Government due to the shortage in acceptable submachine guns from the British Government and are actually based on two different weapons; the British STEN and German MP40 SMGs, with some manufacturing improvements from the Australians. Their name was derived from two words; “AUstralia” and “STEN”, hence the name AUSTEN. With only approximately 20,000 in total made so they had a very small/limited production run and are considered very scarce today. “
Lot 307: Austen – England MK-1 Machine gun 9 mm Luger – Rare and Desirable World War II Fully Automatic Class III “Sales Sample” AUSTEN MK I Submachine Gun. (n.d.-i). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved June 9, 2024, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/59/307/austen-england-mk1-machine-gun-9-mm-luger.
