Battle of Yavin/Legends

"Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!"

- Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin during the Battle of Yavin

The Battle of Yavin, also known as the Battle of the Death Star, was a major battle of the Galactic Civil War that led to the destruction of the first Death Star. The opposing sides were the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance.

Battle
"Lock S-foils in attack position."

- Garven Dreis

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. Obi-Wan Kenobi had confronted Darth Vader and sacrificed himself so the party could escape with the plans and deliver them to Alliance command.

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 provided by R2-D2, 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 2 meters wide and situated in a narrow trench protected by turbolaser batteries. The trench would have to be navigated to allow the Rebel targeting system to lock on to the port, in a climactic portion of the battle called 'Trench Run'. There was little confidence that the weakness could be exploited in such conditions.

The Death Star arrived in system escorted by Divad and two CR90 corvettes, deployed a communications satellite to coordinate defenses and prepared to fire its main weapon. A trio of X-wings, including Keyan Farlander, and a pair R-22 Spearheads were dispatched to destroy the comsat. Farlander and his escorts succeeded in the attack, cutting off Imperial reinforcements and ostensibly destroying the three capital ships and over 140 starfighters of the escort force.

Following the destruction of the comsat, a fleet of some 31 X-wing and Y-wing starfighters 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 Wilhuff 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.

When the first bombing run proved unsuccessful during the Trench Run, the remaining fighters&mdash;three X-wings and one Y-wing&mdash;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 post to the Death Star survived, including (then-Colonel) Maximilian Veers and possibly Chief Bast.

Squadrons
31 Rebel starfighters launched from Yavin IV. The whole fleet was comprised of Red, Gold, Blue and Green Squadrons. The known pilots assigned to them are:

Red Squadron (12 X-wings):
 * Red Leader = Garven Dreis (killed by Darth Vader) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 2 = Wedge Antilles (survived) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 3 = Biggs Darklighter (killed by Darth Vader) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 4 = John D. Branon (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 5 = Luke Skywalker (survived) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 6 = Lt. Jek Porkins (killed by turbolaser fire) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 7 = Elyhek Rue (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 8 = Bren Quersey (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 9 = Lt. Naytaan (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 10 = Theron Nett (killed by Darth Vader) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Red 11 = unknown
 * Red 12 = Gil Viray (killed by Darth Vader) (T-65B X-wing)

Gold Squadron (7 Y-wings):
 * Gold Leader = Jon Vander (apparently killed by Darth Vader) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)
 * Gold 2 = Tiree (thought to be killed by Darth Vader but ejected and was captured) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)
 * Gold 3 = Ryle Torsyn (killed by TIE Fighters) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)
 * Gold 4 = Lt. Lepira (killed by TIE Fighters) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)
 * Gold 5 = Davish Krail (killed by Darth Vader) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)
 * Gold 6 = Hol Okand (killed by TIE Fighters) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)
 * Gold 7 = Commander Keyan Farlander (survived) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)

Blue Squadron (6 X-wings, 1 R-22 Spearhead)
 * Blue Leader = Captain Merrick Simms (apparently killed) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Blue 2 = Commander Ru Murleen (survived) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Blue 3 = 'Rookie One' (survived) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Blue 4 = Thurlow Harris (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Blue 5 = Sam Raider (survived) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Blue 6 = (unknown) (survived) (T-65AC1 X-wing)
 * Blue 7 = Commander Jake Farrell (survived) (R-22 Spearhead)

Green Squadron (4 X-wings and 1 Y-wing)
 * Green Leader = Captain Ernek Marskan (survived) (BTL-S3 Y-wing)
 * Green 2 = Commander Hamo Blastwell (presumed killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Green 3 = Lt. Wenton Chan (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Green 4 = Talos Merkin (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)
 * Green 5 = Fin Danglot (killed by TIE Fighters) (T-65B X-wing)

Aftermath
As a result of this battle, the Rebel Alliance gained credibility as a legitimate military opponent to the Empire. Between the effects of the battle and the dissolution of the Imperial Senate, thousands of star systems openly joined the Alliance in the months following the Death Star's destruction. As a result, the Empire began occupying worlds it had allowed to remain untouched earlier, both actions resulting in an escalation of the war.

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 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 Keyan Farlander.

Calendrical impact
25 years later, it was decided by the New Republic Historical Council to set a new calendar. Some already used a calendar that set year 0 as the fall of Palpatine.

However due to the significance of the destruction of the Death Star, the loss of millions of Imperial personnel and its significance in the eventual overthrow of the Empire, the Council set year 0 as the year when the Battle of Yavin happened; therefore they established the current BBY/ABY calendar which is now in common use..

Behind the scenes

 * The battle 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 novelizations that note the participation of the remainder 10 (out of 30) fighters, belonging to the Blue Squadron and Green Squadron, which provided cover for the squadrons seen in the movie. These groups had survivors as well, not appearing in the view angle of the film.
 * These sources also suggest that the Rebels had to pass through Imperial forces before reaching the Death Star. Rebel Assault showed that Death Star was orbited by a Star Destroyer from which a TIE fighter wave was launched. Star Wars: X-wing showed a Nebulon-B Frigate Divad and Corvettes. This is inconsistent with the 'flight scene' of the movie, though it may explain what the additional unseen squadrons were covering the film squadrons from.
 * In the novelization, Luke was part of Blue Squadron instead of Red Squadron, as canonically shown in the film.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Rebel Assault
 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
 * Star Wars Empire 13: What Sin Loyalty?
 * Star Wars Empire 14: The Savage Heart