| Battle of Yavin | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Galactic Civil War | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | 0 BBY | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Death Star (near Yavin) | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Alliance victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of Yavin was a major battle of the Galactic Civil War. The opposing sides were the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
The battle was arranged after the crew and passengers of the Millennium Falcon seemingly successfully rescued Princess Leia Organa from the Death Star I, along with detailed technical plans of the massive space station. However, as Leia suspected, they were actually allowed to escape by the Empire so as to lead the Empire to the main Rebel base, which turned out to be on the fourth moon of Yavin.
Studying the plans, the Rebels learned that the station had a small exhaust port which led to the main reactor, allowing a proton torpedo to reach the main reactor and destroy the station. However, the port was only 2m wide and situated in a narrow trench protected by enemy turbolaser batteries. The trench would have to be navigated to allow the Rebel targeting system to lock on to the port. There was little confidence that the weakness could be exploited in such conditions.
The Death Star soon arrived at Yavin, however, and prepared to fire its main weapon, which would destroy the Rebel base, along with the entire moon. A fleet of some 30 X-wing and Y-wing starfighters, whose pilots included Luke Skywalker (designated "Red 5"), scrambled to assault the station. The Death Star attempted to use its batteries to defend itself, but the defenses were designed primarily to fight off capital ships, not the small and agile Rebel starfighters. The station commander, Grand Moff Tarkin dismissed the attack as futile and refused to deploy the station's vast TIE squadrons. But Darth Vader, realizing the threat this force was, ordered his personal fighter squadron to scramble on his own authority. The TIE fighter squadrons attacked the Rebel forces soon after they realized that their laser batteries were failing. An order was passed on, to stop all turbolasers from firing, letting the TIEs do the job, and to avoid the risk of Imperial fighters being shot down by friendly fire.
Rebel casualties were heavy, with 90% losses both from station guns and Darth Vader's squadron. When the first bombing run proved unsuccessful, the remaining fighters—three X-wings and one Y-wing—lined up for the second attempt. Darth Vader pursued and picked them off one by one. To the Rebel Command, all seemed hopeless; time was running out with the Death Star getting into firing position, almost all the fighters were lost and the remaining pilot able to make the run, Skywalker, had senselessly deactivated his targeting computer. Skywalker, however, was advised by the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi to use the Force to make the seemingly impossible shot.
Vader, sensing that the last pilot was strong in the Force, prepared to kill him. However, at the last moment, Han Solo and Chewbacca of the Millennium Falcon surprised Darth Vader and with a laser blast destroyed one of his wingmen. In the confusion, the other wingman collided with Vader's fighter, sending him careening out of control and into space. Luke made the shot, and with the Force aiding him, his torpedoes entered the port perfectly. The Death Star exploded just seconds before its main gun would have destroyed Yavin 4. Grand Moff Tarkin and most of his staff were killed in the explosion. The Rebel Alliance had won a spectacular victory.
Several officers aboard the Death Star survived, including (then-Colonel) Maximilian Veers, General Tagge and General Bast, who originally warned Grand Moff Tarkin of the danger the Rebel fighter attack posed.
Fleets
Around 30 ships were launched form Yavin. The whole fleet was composited by Red, Gold, Blue and Green Squadrons. The known pilots assigned to them are:
Red Squadron (12 X-Wings):
- Red Leader = Garven Dreis (terminated)
- Red 2 = Wedge Antilles (alive)
- Red 3 = Biggs Darklighter (terminated)
- Red 4 = John D. (terminated)
- Red 5 = Luke Skywalker (alive)
- Red 6 = Lt. Jek Porkins (terminated)
- Red 7 = Elyhek Rue (terminated)
- Red 8 = Bren Quersey (terminated)
- Red 9 = Lt. Naytaan (terminated)
- Red 10 = Theron Nett (terminated)
- Red 11 = Travis (terminated)
- Red 12 = Naeco (terminated)
Gold Squadron (7 Y-Wings):
- Gold Leader = Jon Vander (terminated)
- Gold 2 = Tiree (terminated)
- Gold 3 = Ryle Torsyn (terminated)
- Gold 4 = Lt. Lepira (terminated)
- Gold 5 = Davish (Pops) Krail (terminated)
- Gold 6 = Hol Okand (terminated)
- Gold 7 = Commander Keyan Farlander (terminated)
Blue Squadron (X-Wings and 2 A-Wings):
- Blue Leader = Captain Merrick Simms (terminated)
- Blue 2 = Commander Ru Murleen (alive)
- Blue 3 = 'Rookie One' (alive)
- Blue 4 = Thurlow Harris (terminated)
- Blue 5 = Sam Raider (terminated)
- Blue 6 = Neo Grid (alive)
- Blue 7 = Commander Jake Farrell (terminated)
Green Squadron (X-Wings and 1 Y-Wing)
- Green 1 = Captain Ernek Marskan (terminated)
- Green 2 = Commander Hamo Blastwell (terminated)
- Green 3 = Lt. Wenton Chan (terminated)
- Green 4 = Talos Merkin (terminated)
- Green 5 = Fin Danglot (terminated)
Aftermath
As a result of this battle, the Rebel Alliance gained credibility as a legitimate military opponent to the Empire. A few months after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire launched a number of small raids at the Yavin moon, in an attempt to destroy the Core Group of the Rebellion. This raids were carried out by small TIE squadrons launched fom a small base near the Yavin system. They often maintain reconnaissance patrols rather than retaliatory attacks. The Rebel Alliance still had to evacuate Yavin 4 to escape retaliation from the Imperial Starfleet and eventually settled on Hoth. The last raid carried out by the Empire was a crushing assault consisting of a planetary blockade and large number of troops, TIE fighters and AT-STs. General Dodonna, mastermind of Yavin's defense, was not able to escape and was captured by Imperial forces and later imprisoned.
The newly launched Executor was dispatched to destroy the Rebel fleet. But Admiral Griff's squadron of Star Destroyers came out of lightspeed and collided with the Executor. By the time the crew regained control, the last Rebel ship jumped into hyperspace.
Few Rebel pilots escaped with their lives from the battle, and only three from the known group: Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles and an unknown Y-Wing pilot (possibly Keyan Farlander).
Calendrical impact
Due to the signifigance of this battle in the eventual overthrow of the Empire, it was later decided by the New Republic Historical Council to set the year in which it took place as year 0, thereby establishing the current BBY/ABY calendar which is now in common use. This took place in about 25 ABY.
Behind the Scenes
The battle, as depicted in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, is based heavily on the battle scenes in the British war film The Dam Busters.
The movie describes the battle only from the point of view of Red Squadron and Gold Squadron. There are games and novelisations that hint the participation of the remainder 10 (out of 30) fighters, belonging to the Blue Squadron and Green Squadron. These groups had survivors as well, not appearing in the view angle of the movie.