Admiral Ozzel came out of lightspeed too close to the system...

Something I don't get about this part of the movie. Admiral Ozzel wants to revert to realspace as close to the Rebel base as possible to achieve surprise. However, the Rebels catch on to this and activate their shield. Now Vader thinks that Ozzel was stupid for trying to achieve surprise, but what the heck would reverting further from Hoth have done? By throwing away the element of surprise the Rebels would detect the fleet even sooner and activate their shield anyway.

 

Ozzel could have used the cover of the asteriod field. It would have slowed things down but he wouldn't have been detected. "With all the meteor activity in this system, it's going to be difficult to spot approaching ships". Instead he stupidily jumped right smack bang in where the Rebels could easily detect a hyperspace reversion and have enough time to put up the shield. "The Rebels are alerted to our presence. Admiral Ozzel came out of light-speed too close to the system."

 

Factfile said he did it on purpose to spite Vader

 

It'd make more sense to hide out for a while and send small vessels before approaching the planet with the Star Destroyers. It would have given them much more time to prepare for battle once they arrived in the system.

 

He is as clumsy as he is stupid.

Sorry, couldn`t help myself.

 

Apparently Imperial procedure meant they usually dropped out of hyperspace further away to let the fleet regroup before attacking. Ozzel let it get too close which immediately alerted the rebels.

 

why analyze it? the point is ozzel screwed up.

 

If the rebels do not know the Empire is there, they can send a small band of fighters down to the planet surface to knock out the power generators for the shield generator. Once the shield generator is down, they can begin their full assault on the (hey wait, isn't this from return of the jedi)

 

Yeah, it doesn't really matter strategically, the point is, Ozzel did something Vader didn't like, Vader choked him.

 

That only proves that Ozzel was indeed, stupid. Not to nitpick...but why in the blue hell would anyone in the Empiral Navy EVER do anything to intentionally spite Darth Vader? Did he secretly have a death wish?

 

He thought he knew what to do better then Vader. He should have realized he was asking for it.

 

Yeah, that's the mark of a true idiot.

 

Even if your're right and your idea is is better than Vader's, Vader can still kill you in an instant if he wants to. Better to just listen to him.

 

Yeah, Ozzel must have missed the seminar on "Vader doesn't need to be in the same room as you to choke you."

 

Clearly he did, or he was just that stupid to ignore it. I'm sure Ozzel was not the first Imperial officer that Vader force-choked, you think he would have know that Vader kills those who displease him.

 

Yeah, just ask Admiral Motti. I'm sure he could stick his neck out for you on that one...

(Yes, I know. Bad pun...)

 

Ozzel was just an Imperial lackey.

 

The way I like to look at it, Vader's just a reformer trying to institute true meritocracy in the military. He doesn't like it when inept people get promoted just because they have connections or are related to somebody important, so he, er, eliminates them. You see, he's quite the hero when you consider it that way!

I've never understood this. If they'd regrouped in the asteroid field and then headed in-system, the Rebels still would have seen them coming and gotten the shield up. The only advantage the Imperials would have is they could send in a few small vessels for recon and hope the Rebels would mistake them for asteroids. Is that really important enough for the Imps to want to throw away the advantage of surprise even further? Sending the Death Squadron to destroy the Hoth base was already analogous to using a sledgehammer to squash a fruit fly. They didn't need recon.

 

I think it would have been preferable to send squadrons of TIE fighters and bombers to level the base while the shield was open.

 

The Vader quote seems to suggest that the Rebels detected Death Squadrons reversion from hyperspace so my way of thinking is that reverting behind the cover of the asteriod field would have averted detection firstly. Then they could move out of the asteriod fields slowly appearing to the Rebel scanners to be meteors. The question is, what would be undetected by the Rebels and thought to be meteors: something as small as a few TIE bombers that could knock out the shield generator, or something as big as the Executor that could perform an orbital bombardment. I'd have to go fighters and smaller vessels but some of those asteriods, like the one the Falcon lands on have at least the mass of a Star Destroyer so they couldn't be entirely ruled out.

 

Also, by deploying the fleet too close, it seems that the ships was in range of the Ion Canon. Ozzel took his ships too close without having explored the rebels counter-measures.

The navy deployment at Hoth really was a mess. Just look at how many rebel transports managed to break through. Piett likely did what he could to prevent it but Ozzel's error was probably to late to fix at that point.

There is one thing I don't understand about this: Wouldn't a complete decimation of the rebel base from orbit kill Luke as well? Why would Vader consider something like that?

 

Methinks Vader suffers from a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Can it not be said of Vader, "Anakin jumped to the high ground too close to Obi-Wan. He's as clumsy as he is stupid"?


Edit: Spelling

 

Ha! Touche!

 

Vader's force choke comes off much better than:
"Excellent work, Admiral Ozzel! Your use of the asteroid field as cover was a brilliant strategy."

This is a pivotal scene since it's the first time we see Vader truly unleashed (he played second fiddle to GM Tarkin through much of ANH).

 

Okay, good point.

I maintain that they wouldn't have been able to get in any significant number of bombers without being detected, though. Sensors can apparently tell if objects are metallic, and it's unlikely any asteroid would have consisted of metal in great enough amounts to be confused with a TIE.