Battle of Yavin
The
Battle of Yavin was a major
battle set in the fictional
Star Wars universe, during the
Galactic Civil War. The opposing sides were the
Galactic Empire and the
Rebel Alliance. The battle was the
climactic scene of the
1977 film
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, and was based heavily on the battle scenes in the British
war film The Dam Busters.
During the
Battle of Danuta,
Kyle Katarn stole the plans to the Death Star, ensuring the first Rebel victory.
The battle was arranged after the crew and passengers of the
Millennium Falcon seemingly successfully rescued Princess
Leia Organa from the
Death Star, along with detailed technical plans of the massive space station. However, as Leia suspected, they were actually allowed to escape 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 missile to reach the main reactor and destroy the station. However, the port was only two
meters wide and situated in a narrow trench protected by heavy turbolaser batteries. The trench would have to be navigated through to allow the Rebel targeting system to lock on to the port. Furthermore, the port was ray shielded so only
proton torpedoes could be used. 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. A fleet of 30
X-wing and
Y-wing starfighters, which included
Luke Skywalker (designated "Red 5") as a pilot, scrambled to assault the station. In the film, Chief Bast is directly quoted as saying "We count 30 Rebel ships, Lord Vader, but they're so small they're evading our turbolasers." The Death Star attempted to use its batteries to defend itself, but the defences were designed to fight off primarily
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 on the rebels. Vader's squadron continued the attack and took down almost all the rebel fighters.
During the battle, the Rebel casualities were heavy, with ninety percent losses both from station guns and Vader's squadron. The first attack run was started by three Y-Wing pilots, including Gold Leader. However, Darth Vader, in his customized Tie Fighter, along with two hand-picked pilots, was able to destroy the Y-wings before they were able to get off a shot. When the first bombing run proved unsuccessful, Red 1 made a second attack run, this time leaving his wingmen farther behind him so as to buy more time. All alone in front, Red 1 was able to fly the length of the trench and fire his proton torpedoes. However, the shot missed the thermal exhaust port, detonating on the surface and causing little else besides superficial damage. Red 1 was then shot down, as his starboard engine was disabled, and he crash landed on the surface of the death star. Once this attack had failed, the remaining fighters—three X-wings, led by
Luke Skywalker; lined up for the second attempt. The other two pilots were
Biggs Darklighter and
Wedge Antilles. Vader pursued and picked them off one by one, first destroying Biggs' X-Wing, and damaging Wedge's ship enough that he had to pull out, leaving Luke vulnerable to Vader's guns. 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 during his run. Skywalker, however, was advised by the spirit of his mentor
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 Vader, destroyed one of his wingmen, and in the confusion that followed, his other wingman collided with Vader and sent him careening out of control into space. With the Force aiding him, Skywalker made the shot, his torpedoes entering the port perfectly. The Death Star exploded just seconds before its main gun would have destroyed Yavin 4; Tarkin and most of his staff, including some of the Empire's best personnel, were killed in the explosion. The Rebel Alliance had won their second victory.
Several officers aboard the Death Star survived, including (then-Colonel)
Maximillian Veers,
General Tagge and
Chief Bast, who originally warned Tarkin of the danger the Rebel fighter attack posed. Bast's survival is evidenced in that he was later seen reporting to Darth Vader on the blockade of
Kashyyyk in
The Star Wars Holiday Special, which takes place approximately a year after
A New Hope, when the Battle of Yavin occurred.
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. These raids were carried out by small TIE squadrons launched from a small outpost near the Yavin system. They often maintained
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 massive planetary blockade. Several battalions were dispatched to the moon to capture the fleeing rebel personnel. General Dodonna, mastermind of Yavin's defense, was captured by Imperial forces and later presumed dead in the battle.
The newly launched
Executor was dispatched to destroy the Rebel fleet. But
Admiral Griff's
squadron of Star Destroyers came out of
light speed and collided with the
Executor. By the time the crew regained control, the last Rebel ship jumped into hyperspace.
Only three Rebel pilots escaped with their lives from the battle: Skywalker,
Wedge Antilles and
Keyan Farlander. (Some believe it may actually have been
Horton Salm instead of Keyan Farlander, though the novel
Wraith Squadron may have ruled Salm out.) The Millennium Falcon, although not an active participant, also survived.
The Empire would make the Rebels pay, though, mainly in the upcoming battles
Massacre on Talay and the
Battle of Hoth.
