Bougainville Rescue: T/Sgt. Elmer Matola

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At the heart of it was T/Sgt. Elmer Matola of Norwood, Massachusetts—a radioman whose calm under pressure and mastery of signal operations helped bring a stranded bomber crew home.

📡 The Voice in the Dark

Elmer Matola wasn’t the kind of soldier who made headlines. He didn’t fly the planes or lead the charges. But when a B-24 Liberator went down behind enemy lines in late 1944, it was Matola’s voice—crackling through static and jungle interference—that became the lifeline between survival and silence.

Stationed with the 13th Air Force, Matola was part of a mobile communications unit tasked with maintaining contact between forward airfields and reconnaissance teams. When word came that a bomber had crash-landed in Bougainville’s interior, Matola was assigned to coordinate the rescue effort from a remote outpost.

“We didn’t know if they were alive,” Matola later recalled. “But we knew we had to try.”

🗺️ The Terrain: Bougainville’s Jungle Maze

Bougainville, part of the Solomon Islands chain, was a strategic but treacherous location. Its mountainous interior was covered in thick jungle, riddled with Japanese patrols and nearly impassable terrain. Aircraft that went down here were often lost for good.

Matola’s challenge was twofold:

• Locate the crew using intercepted signals and aerial reconnaissance
• Coordinate a rescue with limited resources and no direct line of sight

Using a combination of Morse code, triangulated radio signals, and field reports from native scouts, Matola helped pinpoint the crew’s location within a 2-mile radius—a feat considered near-impossible given the conditions.

🛩️ The Rescue Operation

Once the crew’s position was confirmed, Matola relayed coordinates to a PBY Catalina flying boat and a team of Australian coastwatchers. The operation required precise timing: the rescue team had to land in a river clearing, extract the crew, and take off before enemy forces could respond.

Matola maintained constant radio contact throughout the mission, guiding the rescuers through terrain updates and weather shifts. When the Catalina lifted off with all crew members aboard, cheers erupted at the outpost.

“It was the best sound I ever heard,” Matola said. “That engine roar meant they were safe.”

🎖️ Recognition and Return

For his role in the Bougainville rescue, T/Sgt. Elmer Matola received commendations from both U.S. and Australian forces. But back in Norwood, he remained humble. After the war, he returned to civilian life, working in telecommunications and volunteering with veterans’ groups.

His story, long overshadowed by more visible acts of valor, is now being reclaimed as part of Norwood’s living memory—a testament to the quiet heroes who made miracles happen with wires, signals, and grit.

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Sidebar: Matola’s Jungle Signal Kit

• SCR-300 backpack radio
• Morse key and signal lamp
• Jungle antenna rig with bamboo supports
• Waterproof codebooks
• Emergency flare beacon for air-to-ground coordination

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Would you like to pair this with a visual timeline of the rescue or a sketch of Matola’s signal station? I can also help build a companion piece on the coastwatchers or the Catalina crew.

(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)