| Battle of Yavin | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Galactic Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Alliance to Restore the Republic |
 Galactic Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
General Jan Dodonna Jon "Dutch" Vander † Garvin Dreis † Luke Skywalker |
Grand Moff Tarkin † Darth Vader | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
|
Red Squadron Gold Squadron |
61st "Black" Squadron | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Several X-Wing and Y-Wing starfighters Millennium Falcon armed freighter |
One Death Star Several TIE fighters Several turbolaser batteries | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
Several rebel pilots dead One astromech droid damaged (later repaired) |
Death Star destroyed Several TIE fighters shot down Millions of imperial personnel killed | ||||||
The Battle of Yavin takes place in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It pits the Galactic Empire against the Rebel Alliance around the gas giant planet Yavin and its fourth moon.
In a previous battle, the rebels managed to steal the plans for the Death Star, a gigantic Imperial battle station equipped with a laser capable of destroying planets. However, the Empire has discovered the location of the rebel base on Yavin 4 and intends to destroy it using its new weapon. The Death Star has a vulnerability that the rebels have discovered. When it is in orbit around Yavin, they send all their ships in a desperate attack to destroy it. This leads to battles with Imperial fighters commanded by Darth Vader. Using the Force, Luke Skywalker manages to reach the vulnerability and destroy the battle station without leaving any survivors, although Darth Vader flees and lives to fight another day.
For the Rebel Alliance, this battle is a victory. However, the rebels are forced to flee to settle elsewhere. Indeed, Darth Vader, who was not aboard the Death Star when it exploded, continues to hunt them down.
The Battle of Yavin is depicted in the film A New Hope.[Notes 1] It is largely created using practical special effects. It serves as a reference point in the Star Wars chronology.
In addition to the film, it is represented in novelizations of the film in which it appears, as well as in several novels, video games, and comics.
Cite error: There are <ref group=Notes> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=Notes}} template (see the help page).