Battle of Yavin/Legends

"This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Kenobi; it will soon see the end of the rebellion."

- Darth Vader to Grand Moff Tarkin before the battle

The Battle of Yavin was a major battle of the Galactic Civil War that led to the destruction of the first Death Star and Luke Skywalker's first step to becoming a fully-fledged Jedi. It was one of the Rebellion's first major victories.

Prelude
"Any attack made by the Rebels against this station would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they've obtained."

- Conan Motti

With the imminent completion of the Empire's Death Star, the Rebel Alliance anticipated a major Imperial offensive. To unify command and coordinate a defense, the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Independence carried members of the Alliance High Command to their secret base on Yavin 4. Upon arrival, the Independence sent Red, Gold and Blue Squadron to Yavin Base. Their numbers were augmented by veteran pilots as the Alliance gathered its resources in preparation for the coming battle.

The Rebel's Operation: Skyhook had resulted in the resistance movement obtaining a complete technical readout of the battle station. The plans were placed into the hands of Rebel leader Princess Leia Organa, but she was captured by Imperial forces over the planet Tatooine.

The plans were brought to Yavin 4 after the crew and passengers of the Millennium Falcon successfully rescued Organa from the Death Star. To facilitate their escape, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had confronted his former Padawan and Organa's father, Darth Vader, and sacrificed himself in the process.

Around the time of the rescue, several pilots of Red Squadron were on a mission to Commenor to pick up astromech droids. They were successful, although the raid resulted in the death of Cesi Eirriss.

However, as Organa suspected, the Empire allowed them to escape after planting a homing beacon aboard the Millennium Falcon, thus leading Imperial forces to the previously hidden main Rebel base on Yavin 4. As the Rebel Alliance stationed at Yavin 4 lacked the amount of capital ships required to attack the battle station, the Alliance could not attempt to exploit the tactic of firing on the focusing crystals enough to misalign it, and the Death Star's defenses were also designed to repel that kind of assault anyway. In addition, as Rebels had learned of the Death Star's arrival on short notice after recovering the full plans, they also were left with little time to plan an infiltration operation into the station to destroy it from within.

Having received intelligence that the Rebels were on Yavin, an Imperial strike force arrived to verify the presence of the Rebel base; they successfully fought the defenders at the Massassi Arena.

Studying the plans provided by Organa's astromech droid R2-D2, the Alliance learned that the station had a small exhaust port not protected by a particle shield through which a well-placed proton torpedo could reach the main reactor and destroy the station. The port was only 2 meters wide, however, and was 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, and perfect accuracy was required for the torpedo to enter the exhaust port. Under such conditions, there was little confidence that the weakness could be exploited. Despite this uncertainty, Red and Gold Squadrons commenced the main trench run to target the exhaust port, while Blue and Green Squadrons attacked the superlaser in order to buy time for Red and Gold Squadrons. If Red and Gold Squadrons failed, at least Blue and Green squadrons might deal sufficient damage to the superlaser dish to keep the Empire from making the Death Star fully operational. General Jan Dodonna briefed the strike pilots himself.

That same day, Imperial commander Brenn Tantor saved the planet Sarapin from destabilization at the hands of the Rebel Alliance. Also, Soontir Fel led a squadron of the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing in routing a squadron of Rebel Y-wings at Ord Biniir.

Battle
"Lock S-foils in attack position."

- Garven Dreis

The Death Star arrived in system escorted by a small support fleet consisting of the Nebulon-B frigate Divad and two CR90 corvettes BB 45 and SB 35. While the Death Star prepared to fire its main weapon, a communications satellite was deployed to coordinate defenses. The Rebels, still planning their attack, knew that any delay to the Death Star's approach could spell the difference between victory and defeat. Therefore they planned a small attack to destroy the communications satellite and disrupt operations. A trio of X-wings, including Keyan Farlander, and a pair of R-22 Spearheads were dispatched to destroy the comsat. While Farlander's wingmen held off Imperial fighters, Farlander ignored the threat and headed straight for the satellite, destroying it with a proton torpedo. The mission was a success, preventing the Empire from calling for reinforcements and disrupting their defenses, although two of the Rebel X-wings were shot down and the pilots had to be rescued later. Other portions of the offensive fleet included two Victory II-class Star Destroyers and two Tartan-class patrol cruisers. A large part of the Alliance Fleet, including MC80 Star Cruisers, Nebulon-B escort frigates, and other Rebel starfighters destroyed those four Imperial starships, however, to allow the Rebel Alliance attack on the Death Star to proceed.

Farlander was quickly dispatched again in one of two X-wings charged with clearing some of the defenses around the trench. They succeeded in destroying several laser batteries as well as some small surface hangars, limiting the Death Star's ability to launch fighters. While Red and Gold Squadrons were focused on attacking the exhaust port, Blue and Green Squadrons were ordered to attack the superlaser itself, hoping that they could have some chance of damaging the weapon and if not, they could at least distract some Imperial forces from the exhaust port attack.

Meanwhile, down on the ground X2, Shara, and other Rebel soldiers fought off Imperials attacking from space: Various TIE/sa bombers were deployed and doing bombing strafes around the base, and likewise a contingent of Stormtroopers also entered the Yavin 4 Base. X2, Shara, and various Rebel soldiers proceeded to enter the temple as well as avoid the various strafing runs of the TIE bombers. Thanks to the Stormtroopers, the base's anti-aircraft turret was also deactivated, forcing X2 to reactivate the turret's power station. After doing so and then preventing them from taking the Great Temple, Dodonna called X2 and Shara and informed them that Imperials had set up jamming systems that were interfering with the X-wing's engines. X2 and Shara located and destroyed the jamming devices. After fully clearing out the Imperials from the base, X2 then went into space to participate in the battle against the Death Star.

The Trench Run
"We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger. Should I have your ship standing by?''" "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph?'' I think you overestimate their chances!"

- Moradmin Bast and Wilhuff Tarkin

Following the preliminary attacks, a fleet of 22 X-wing, 8 Y-wing, and 2 R-22 Spearhead 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 ships. The fighters destroyed several turrets and a rookie pilot known as Rookie One destroyed a giant ion cannon mounted on the Station, in order to set the stage for the main phase of the assault.

Although they managed to infiltrate the Death Star's outer defenses, the Rebel Alliance pilots still needed to destroy the Death Star's ten deflector shield towers that protected the trench.

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 material threat, ordered his personal fighter squadron to scramble on his own authority. The TIE fighter squadron 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. The Rebels engaged in duels with the starfighters, destroying several to clear the way to the trench.

As the rest of the Rebel fighters engaged Vader's forces, three Y-wings from Gold Squadron began their attack run on the trench. They were followed by Vader in his TIE/Advanced and two TIE fighter escorts. Vader shot down Tiree (Gold Two) and Jon Vander (Gold Leader) in the trench, then shot down Davish Krail (Gold Five) as he attempted to escape.

A second bombing run was made by Red Squadron, with Garven Dreis (Red Leader) making the attack itself, while Red 10 and Red 12 attempted to hold off Vader and his fighters. While both his companions were shot down, Red Leader succeeded in making the run, but his proton torpedoes exploded on the exhaust port's surface, leaving a near miss and also killing some stormtroopers inside from the force of the explosion. Garven Dreiss ordered Luke (Red Five), Biggs (Red 3), and Wedge (Red 2) to make a third run shortly before Vader shot Garven down.

During the battle, Vader pursued a shuttle full of Imperial defectors led by TIE pilot Villian Dance, but the ongoing battle forced Vader to turn back.

On the Death Star, an officer analyzed the Rebels' attack plan and realized there was actually a good chance they could destroy the reactor--and with it, the entire station. He alerted Tarkin and suggested they consider retreating or evacuation. Tarkin, however, believed the final victory for the Empire was in sight, and would not even consider pulling back.

Like the previous run, the flight leader, Luke, made the actual attack, while his wingmen, Biggs and Wedge, covered for him. As before, Vader and his escorts moved to intercept the X-wings. Wedge was hit and forced to disengage, while Biggs was killed when his starfighter was shot down, leaving Luke alone with Vader in the trench. X2 also arrived at the Death Star at that point to aid Luke Skywalker, and got himself within range of Darth Vader's TIE/Advanced to supply Luke with backup. Unfortunately, Vader anticipated X2's arrival and ordered for all turbolaser turrets to fire on X2, forcing him to withdraw. Likewise, Vader also managed to severely damage R2-D2 with his blasters.

To the Rebel Command, all seemed hopeless; the Death Star had reached firing position, almost all the fighters were lost, and the remaining pilot able to make the run, Skywalker, had 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.

In the Death Star's control room, master chief gunnery officer Tenn Graneet prepared to fire the Death Star's superlaser. With the Death Star primed to fire, he hesitated, feeling the guilt of the destruction of Alderaan. He called to standby as the others in the control room urged him to shoot.

Vader, sensing that the last pilot, Skywalker, was strong in the Force, prepared to kill him (unaware at the time that Skywalker was his own son). However, at the last moment, Han Solo and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon surprised Darth Vader and, with a laser blast, destroyed one of his wingmen. In the confusion, the other wingman panicked and collided with Vader's fighter, sending himself crashing into the trench and Vader careening out of control into space. With the Force aiding him, Luke fired his torpedoes, both of which entered the port perfectly. On the Death Star's bridge, Admiral Motti called out that torpedoes were in the main shaft and would hit the reactor. The Death Star exploded just seconds before its main gun would have destroyed Yavin 4. Grand Moff Tarkin and the battle station's entire crew, sans Vader, were killed. Vader himself managed to regain control of his fighter and fled the Yavin system with his life. The Rebel Alliance had won a spectacular victory. Because of these actions, Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca were awarded medals after the battle.

Aftermath
"Great shot, kid! That was one in a million!"

- Han Solo to Skywalker

Vader managed to make it to the nearby listening post on Vaal. As a result of this battle, the Rebel Alliance gained instant 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.

The next day, Skywalker took his X-wing for a flight, and fought a TIE fighter survivor.

Soon after the destruction, Imperial commander Brenn Tantor arrived with a strike force to rescue Colonel Maximilian Veers, whose shuttle had gotten caught in the crossfire. Tantor rescued Veers and destroyed a Rebel command center. Several garrisons escaped the Death Star, and their escape pods crashed near the Rebel base. They were fought off before the Evacuation of Yavin. Survivors from the 501st Legion also joined up with a Star Destroyer to launch a raid, which resulted in the death of three Bothan High Command leaders and the destruction of hundreds of Rebel ships.



Darth Vader became obsessed with finding the pilot with the Force presence who had fired the conclusive shot and led Death Squadron in his search.

A few months after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire launched a number of small raids at the Yavin moon. These raids were carried out by small TIE squadrons launched from a small base near the Yavin system. They often maintained reconnaissance patrols rather than retaliatory attacks. The Rebel Alliance eventually evacuated Yavin 4 to escape retaliation from the Imperial Navy and settled on Hoth.

The last raid carried out by the Empire was a crushing assault consisting of a planetary blockade along with the remnants of the 501st Legion, TIE Fighters and AT-STs. General Jan Dodonna, mastermind of Yavin's defense, was not able to escape and was captured by Imperial forces and later imprisoned.

The newly launched Imperial flagship, 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, including: Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, Rookie One, Ru Murleen, Merrick Simms, Jake Farrell, Keyan Farlander, X2, and Shara. The Red Squadron survivors continued to fight for the Rebellion and eventually grew into two groups, Renegade Flight and Rogue Squadron.

In honor of the battle, an Imperial vessel was eventually renamed upon its capture by the Rebel Alliance.

As a direct result of the conflict and the Rebel Alliance's victory, the Empire quickly increased mass production of the TIE/IN interceptor line, which had already been created as a direct result of the Lightspeed Panther's destruction of 286 TIE/LN starfighters during the Fei Hu campaign a year earlier, eventually resulting in it becoming the Empire's primary starfighters by the time of 2 ABY, as well as quickly increasing the development and mass production of the Executor-class Star Dreadnought line.

Although the Death Star II was not planned as a direct result of the Death Star's destruction (as Emperor Palpatine had earlier ordered for the construction of it and reserved the Sanctuary pipeline hyperspace route to Endor for transporting construction materials, an order he ironically gave minutes before Luke delivered the deciding shot that resulted in the first Death Star's destruction ), its completion was nonetheless made more urgent as a direct result of the Rebel victory.

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, 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 BBY/ABY calendar.

The Galactic Alliance, as the legal successor to the defunct New Republic, continued to use this calendar, but it is unknown what calendar was used by the Fel Empire or the new Sith Empire.

Behind the scenes
"Congratulations, Lord Vader. The Rebels have been completely routed!"'' ''"It is a great day for the Empire"

- An Imperial and Darth Vader in the alternate history version of the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

The battle is based heavily on the battle scenes in the British war film The Dam Busters.

In the novelization of the film, Luke Skywalker's X-wing squadron is called "Blue Squadron", while the Y-wing squadron is called "Red Squadron". In the film, these colors are changed to Red and Gold, respectively. This change was necessitated because the blue paint on the X-wings had to be removed for blue screen purposes.

The Farlander Papers reveals that Keyan Farlander is the pilot of the Y-wing fighter seen leaving the Death Star alongside Luke, Wedge and the Millennium Falcon.

The 1998 Star Wars Encyclopedia places Commander Arhul Narra and his Renegade Flight at the Battle of Yavin. Lucasfilm's Leland Chee has since confirmed this as an error on the StarWars.com forums.

The Battle (and alternative versions of it) has appeared so many times in EU sources that have contributed many retcons and new elements, it seems that the events shown in the film are actually a very limited portion of the 'actual' battle. The movie describes the battle only from the point of view of some members of Red Squadron and Gold Squadron, only a fraction of the thirty ships mentioned and seen in the film.

The novelization of A New Hope also mentions two additional squadrons&mdash;Yellow and Green&mdash;providing cover to those we see in the film. Though these other squadrons are not seen in the film, the number of fighters shown does suggest more than two squadrons.

In Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker's proton torpedoes detonate prematurely and fail to destroy the Death Star. The Imperials send out a wing of TIE Fighters to pick off the remaining members of Red Squadron. Unable to fire a fully charged shot from the Death Star's superlaser, Grand Moff Tarkin orders the technicians to fire at reduced power, nearly leveling the Massassi Temple on the moon’s surface.The Rebel forces attempt to flee the Yavin system. Once the power levels are stabilized Tarkin orders to fire again to destory the planet. After that, the Rebel forces are captured by the Imperials. Luke, driven to near-insanity by the failure of the mission and the apparent destruction of Rebel base, turns his fighter to face the TIEs alone. Eventually, Han Solo convinces Luke to flee and the Millennium Falcon jumps into hyperspace with Luke’s X-wing on its tail.

These sources also suggest that the Rebels had to pass through Imperial forces before reaching the Death Star. Star Wars: Rebel Assault showed the Death Star was orbited by a Star Destroyer from which a TIE Fighter wave was launched and a surface cannon had to be neutralized before the trench run. X-wing showed other Imperial vessels as well like the Divad.

A Blue Squadron at Yavin 4 is mentioned in X-wing: The Official Strategy Guide. Blue Squadron actually appears in the game Rebel Assault, though the specific details from that game (the player's character from Blue destroying the Death Star) are not canonical. A character killed in that non-canon trench run, Thurlow Harris, was revealed to have survived the battle in the Star Wars Blog article "The Not-So Magnificent Seven." The main characters from Rebel Assault do appear in Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire, the storyline of which has been referred to in canon sources.

The fourth squadron had not been referenced in any other source besides the novelization for many years, and fans speculated that the fourth squadron mentioned above could be named Green Squadron, since every other color used in the novelization has been used in other incarnations (assuming "Yellow" is just a substitute for Gold). Green Squadron at Yavin was finally referenced in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia in 2008.

Though the film only shows just three surviving fighters, X-wing and  Star Wars: Rebel Assault both show others flying away from the exploding Death Star, while the novelization mentions that "several" X-wings and Y-wings escaped. On StarWars.com's Q&A pages, Stephen J. Sansweet says, it's "pretty definite" that more ships survived and just aren't visible on screen.

A-wings are shown taking part in the Battle of Yavin in X-wing and Rebel Assault, though other sources indicate the fighters were introduced some time after the battle. The A-wings in these games have been retconned into R-22 Spearheads, a forerunner of the later vessel, only nicknamed "A-wing". Writers created the Spearhead to specifically resolve this discrepancy, and the A-wing's appearance in Star Wars: Droids. Inside the Worlds of Star Wars shows an R-22 in the Rebel base shortly before the battle.

The timeline of Star Wars fiction is most often based upon this event, where events are dated as happening so many years "before the Battle of Yavin" (BBY) or "after the Battle of Yavin" (ABY).

In the LEGO Star Wars & Star Wars: Rogue Squadron video games, many more TIE Fighters beyond Black Squadron are depicted, probably for a bigger challenge. In addition, with the latter game, the player also has the option of picking up the Advanced Shields tech upgrade during the portion where the player (or players, as was the case of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike) has to fight various TIE squadrons. In Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, the battle serves as the game's second bonus mission, unlocked by earning all silver medals in the campaign or by using cheat codes. The player is tasked with chasing the Imperials down the trench and then destroying the power plant. In the mission, the trench is larger than depicted in the film and has four corners, and the exhaust port is guarded by large turbolaser towers.

In Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, in addition to the standard Battle of Yavin, the game included a bonus mission called "Triumph of the Empire", which was the Battle of Yavin told from the view of the Galactic Empire. The player plays as Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced x1. At the end of the mission, the player is treated to a short video of the last three X-wings getting shot down, with Vader proclaiming it is a great day for the Empire. As the point of the mission is to stop the Rebel forces from destroying the Death Star, the trench portion of the mission's conclusion is non-canon. The bonus mission is likewise omitted from '"Rebel Strike co-op mode (which was a modified version of Rogue Leader'').

In the 1979 Atari arcade game Star Wars, an arcade flight-simulator adaptation for A New Hope that focused on the Battle of Yavin, the player in some modes has to destroy several towers that litter the area. In addition, to make the run more challenging, there were also several turrets and obstacles in the trench that the player has to avoid. This was retained in the Rogue Squadron games, which cited the arcade game to be the inspiration for the game series. In addition, they were also to some extent based on Joe Johnston's original vision of the meridian trench run.

In the 2006 video game Star Wars: Empire at War, the endgame of the Rebellion campaign is the fight against the Death Star. The station may be destroyed over any planet, but only after its defensive fleet is destroyed and Red Squadron is present in the battle. The size of the Rebel fleet is the player's choice and can include several types of starships. This article assumes several starships were present but does not include a specific number. After the Death Star is destroyed, the player is treated to a cutscene with Skywalker launching his torpedoes, and it is followed by the Royal Award Ceremony. If the player chooses to win by domination, a separate cutscene is played, with the Rebel fleet destroying Vader's Star Destroyer over Coruscant.

The 2012 mobile game Angry Birds Star Wars recreates the Battle of Yavin in the final mission of the Death Star area. The launching platform is a "slingshot X-wing" and the player is provided with Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Han Solo, and Rebel pilot-themed birds to face "Darth Piggy" and other Imperial forces. When the player wins, they are treated to a short slideshow of the destruction of the Death Star.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope
 * Tag & Bink Are Dead
 * Choose Your Own Star Wars Adventure: A New Hope
 * Star Wars 78: Hoth Stuff!
 * The Long, Bad Day
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron