Trench run

The Trench run is the name of the most critical portion of the Battle of Yavin.

According to the plan, the Trench Run was to be followed by the Y-Wing bombers of the Gold Squadron and hit its Thermal exhaust port with a proton torpedo, supported by the X-Wings of the Red Squadron.

In reality however, the Y-Wings were soon wiped out so the Trench Run was taken over by the X-Wings. The ships' astromech droids redirected more power to the engines and the ships reached remarkable speed. Also, the HUDs were modified so that they would simulate the run and measure the distance until the exhaust port.

The Blue Squadron also followed the Trench Run, although its exact role in the strategy is not clear.

In the trench, the Rebel ships were closely followed by at least 3 Imperial ships, led by Darth Vader's TIE Advanced x1 which was escorted by 2 TIE Fighters. These were cleaned out by the Millennium Falcon which surprisingly appeared in the battle, allowing Luke Skywalker to manage the final blow. However shortly before that, R2D2 who served as Red 5 astromech, was seriously damaged.

Some time after the battle, the Run was ported into a simulation, but allowing the player to fly with a B-Wing in order to compare its efficiency against the classical X-Wing.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: A New Hope
 * Star Wars: X-Wing
 * Star Wars: Rebel Assault