Battle of Yavin (Part I):  Alliance Forces at Yavin

[Here are links to all 5 parts of this feature. We hope you enjoy it.]

PART I: Alliance Forces at Yavin 6/18/2018
PART II: Red Squadron Pilots 6/19/2018 (Updated 11/11/2022)
PART III: Figures and Toys of Red Squadron 6/20/2018 (Updated 10/26/2022)
PART IV: Gold Squadron 6/21/2018
PART V: Blue and Green Squadrons 6/27/2018 (Updated 10/26/2022)



Red and Gold Squadrons hold special places in the hearts of most OT fans, as these units were made up of the heroic batch of pilots (and droids!) that fought to destroy the Death Star, avenge Alderaan (and Jedha City and Scarif), and save the galaxy. Here we are going to take a closer look into which pilots and astromechs (and ships!) make up both squadrons, and we'll see if we need to give Hasbro any homework assignments.

In the days of the Expanded Universe, it could be argued that one of the most confusing and inconsistently referenced areas of Star Wars lore revolved around the Rebel participants at the Battle of Yavin. We have A New Hope itself (as well as the Special Editions), the novelization, and the comic adaption, all of which combine to paint an inconsistent picture. In the decades that followed, countless sources, many of them contradictory, made it nearly impossible to maintain a 100% accurate list of names of those that flew against the Death Star.

As with many aspects of A New Hope, production issues have clouded the full story behind what we see on screen. THIS GUY breaks down the battle as it was in the original novelization. It's a bit confusing, but In the novelization, there were 4 squadrons: Blue (X-wings, including Luke and Wedge), Red (Y-wings), Yellow (X-wings) and Green (Y-wings), The original quantities of starfighters in each group aren't 100% clear, but it seems that the comic adaptation had 6 X-wings in Red Squadron.

Models and helmet props for A New Hope were originally made for Red and Blue groups of the X-wings, but most fans are now aware that during filming, limitations on blue-screen technology meant that the blue markings on the corresponding X-wings would be erased and replaced with the starfield background. As such, the squadron colors were radically changed from the novel to the film for practical purposes. The two X-wing squadrons were combined into Red, and the Y-wings were changed to Gold (dropping "yellow" from the novel). The film version merged some of the X-wings to make Red squadron consist of 12 starfighters, although other X-Wings can be seen in the approach shot from Yavin. Neither Blue nor Green are ever mentioned in the film. The EU maintained that all four groups (including Blue and Green) were present for the assault on the Death Star. Strangely, Wookieepedia (Legends) lists only a single Y-wing as part of Green Squadron, which accounts for the 8th Y-wing seen in the special edition approach shots of the Death Star, while the other 7 were known to be part of Gold Squadron.

Legends: 32 Alliance Starfighters:

Red Squadron
12 T-65 X-wing starfighters

Gold Squadron
7 BTL Y-wing starfighters

Green Squadron
1 BTL Y-wing starfighter

Blue Squadron
6 T-65 X-wing starfighters
2 R-22 Spearhead starfighters

In Legends (formerly known as "Expanded Universe"), there were 32 Rebel starfighters that launched from the Rebel base to attack the Death Star. This is interesting in light of this quote lifted directly from A New Hope:

"We count thirty Rebel ships, Lord Vader, but they're so small they're evading our turbolasers."

It's from the future!

The EU contradicted that a bit by adding the two A-Wing precursor "Spearheads" listed above. Originally called "A-Wings", they were actually retconned as "Spearheads", to explain the anachronistic, pre-Endor appearance of A-Wings in various EU sources, including the Droids cartoon series and video games such as Rebel Assault. Rebel Assault was odd because it essentially placed the gameplayer in the cockpit of an X-Wing as "Rookie One" (instead of Luke Skywalker). The events of the storyline, along with the actions of the companion pilots, mirrored those seen in ANH. It is player as Rookie One (not Luke) who destroys the Death Star with the help of Blue Squadron, including pilots such as Jake Farrell flying an A-Wing (corrected later to be a spearhead). The Story Group apparently allowed some aspects of the game to become canon (such as the inclusion of 2 spearheads at the battle), while other aspects were deemed non-canon (such as Blue Squadron participating in the trench run and destroying the Death Star).

New Canon: 30 Alliance Starfighters:

Red Squadron
12 T-65B X-wing starfighters

Green Squadron
10 T-65B X-wing starfighters

Gold Squadron
8 BTL-A4 Y-wing assault starfighter/bombers

Once Disney dumped the EU in 2014, the new canon seemingly streamlined the order of battle a bit, which was not necessarily a bad thing. The twelve X-Wings of Red Squadron remained intact. Gold and Green Squadrons were given more logical compliments of starfighters than had previously existed in the EU. Green Squadron is not meaningfully featured in ANH, however the approach shot of the Rebel groups clearly shows the entire task force of all 30 ships: 22 X-Wings and 8 Y-Wings. Blue Squadron was no longer present at Yavin (having been later shown to be decimated at the Battle of Scarif in Rogue One).

22 X-Wings and 8 Y-Wings. Go ahead. Count 'em.

According to the short story "Grounded" (from the anthology From A Certain Point of View), in addition to the 30 ships that flew in the assault on the Death Star, there were also 7 more starfighters that remained in the hangar at the Massassi Temple. Three of five X-Wings were spaceworthy, with the other two having been cannibalized. A single Y-Wing required massive maintenance. A lone U-Wing was useless for the mission. I'll go into more detail on the information (some contradictory) gleaned from A Certain Point of View in the next part.

In Part II, we'll get a detailed look at the pilots of Red Squadron. Then we'll examine the existing action figures and toys. Later, we'll do the same for Gold Squadron. Maybe, if you eat all of your vegetables, we'll take a bonus look at Blue Squadron, which was unable to participate at Yavin. Green Squadron? Screw those guys.

PART II: Red Squadron PIlots

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