Red Squadron at Yavin question (Battle of Yavin Roster Thread)

In the ANH Radio Drama, one of the Rebel commanders told Luke he was sending up pilots with less experience than him. We know from X-wing 1/2 that this does not include Wedge, Porkins, Biggs, and (presumably) Red Leader. Does anyone know who he's referring to?

Tacking on a better description of what this thread has become in the title.

 

They were pretty despret for pilots there. They probably put everyone who could fly up there.

 

and yet all those people in flight suits in the yavin celebration room.

maybe there was a flu going around that kept some of the veteran pilots out of the cockpit.

(like the pilot who had Red 5 before Luke, and got pretty angry over the newbie getting the kill when he shoulda been up there) --Vader's Quest

i always thought that the number of starfighters present was the limiting factor on the rebel involvement in that battle.. and not the number of pilots..

 

Janson was sick that day, and not flight capable.

 

I was under the impression that Hobbie and Janson were not in Red Squadron at the time (at least according to X-wing 1/2). I know Tycho didn't join up until after Alderaan's destruction.

 

Tycho joined after the initial evacuation from Yavin.

TC

 

In the novelization you get the feeling there were far more Alliance fighters present than the movie shows. It's stated that several X-wings, Y-wings, and a battered frieghter leave after Luke's fateful shot. Yet the movie gives us what, three fighters and the Falcon? The SE may have uped that number, I'm not sure. The copy I used to be able to watch is now in rather sad shape. However, I do remember that the SE added far more ships in the approach on the Death Star. That seems to fit better with the impression I got from the novelization.

 

I was under the impression that Hobbie and Janson were not in Red Squadron at the time (at least according to X-wing 1/2). I know Tycho didn't join up until after Alderaan's destruction.

Janson was a member of Red Squadron (and the Teirfon Yellow Aces prior to that) but was sick and was unable to fly at Yavin. I'd like ot say Hobbie joined up when Biggs Darklighter did, but I'm not sure.

It's stated that several X-wings, Y-wings, and a battered frieghter leave after Luke's fateful shot. Yet the movie gives us what, three fighters and the Falcon? The SE may have uped that number, I'm not sure.

The SE only shows the Falcon, two X-wings (Luke and Wedge) and one Y-wing (Keyan Farlander).

 

I fired up my SE laserdisc to check...

We see 10 X-wings and 2 Y-wings taking off from the Yavin spotter's view.

In the initial space shot, I count 14 X-wings and 4 Y-wings, along with three more objects too far in the background for me to tell, but that appear to be X-wings.

I'm too lazy to pull out my original version laserdisc as well, but in my mind's eye they were pretty close, numerically.

Another thing that piqued my interest was the low number of Imperial TIEs sent out to engage them after they made their initial assault on the trench's anti-fighter defenses...only 6 TIEs from the initial wave, and only three reinforcements (Lord Vader and his wingmen). Given the vast numbers of TIEs aboard the Death Star, I wonder about that logic.

The SE (and I believe, the original version) shows only the Falcon, two X-wings and a Y-wing retreating from the Death Star's explosion.

The other thing that irks me is the callsigns left unpopulated...

Red Leader
Red 2 (Wedge)
Red 3 (Biggs)
Red 5 (Luke)
Red 6 (Porkins)
Red 7
Red 9
Red 10 (John D?)
Red 11

That accounts for 9 of the 14 X-wings. Anyone more well versed than I care to populate that list a little further?

 

Red Squadron Roster as of Battle of Yavin (culled from CCG)

Garven "Dave" Dreis - Red Leader
Wedge Antilles - Red Two
Biggs Darklighter - Red Three
John D. - Red Four
Luke Skywalker - Red Five
Jek Porkins - Red Six
Elyhek Rue - Red Seven
Bren Quernsey - Red Eight
Lieutenant Naytaan - Red Nine
Theron Nett - Red Ten

Reds. Eleven and Twelve are unnamed, although one may be Wenton Chan.

 

I might be mistaken but didn't a Junior Imperial Officer inform Darth Vader that "we count 30 rebel ships, but they are evading our turbo lasers". Since I'm at work I can't check, but I always wondered where the other ships were during the dog fight.

 

Thank you, cavalier one. That accounts for 10 (or 11) of the 14 X-wings seen on film. As far as "30 rebel ships", there may have been a breakdown something like this

1 squadron = 12 aircraft

Red Squadron X-wings (in its entirety)
Blue Squadron X-wings (also complete)
Gold Squadron Y-wings (6 ships, two flight groups, i.e. two leaders and four wingmen)

That would account for 30 craft. Perhaps Blue Squadron ran a diversionary attack elsewhere on the Death Star to keep the TIEs occupied? Note that this is all speculation, but there was a Blue Squadron in the novelization.

 

Well, more accurately, in the novelization Red Squadron was Blue Squadron - Luke was Blue Five.

 

Were all of those 30 destoryed? I know that there was Wedge, Luke, Y-Wing and Falcon that we see. Were there any others?

 

There were three survivors of Yavin:
- Wedge Antilles
- Luke Skywalker
- Keyan Farlander

All others were killed.

 

*cough*
Han and Chewie in the Falcon also survived.

There may have been additional surviving ships who pulled away earlier, way before the DS exploded.

cavalier-one listed
Garven "Dave" Dreis - Red Leader
Wedge Antilles - Red Two
Biggs Darklighter - Red Three
John D. - Red Four
Luke Skywalker - Red Five
Jek Porkins - Red Six
Elyhek Rue - Red Seven
Bren Quernsey - Red Eight
Lieutenant Naytaan - Red Nine
Theron Nett - Red Ten

Reds. Eleven and Twelve are unnamed, although one may be Wenton Chan.
---
Ironically, we see Wenton Chan (generic white helmet with blue rebel insignias) getting into a cockpit, but not in the fight)

rounding out the fleet (from the CCG):

Gold Leader - Jon 'Dutch' Vander
Gold 2 - Tiree
Gold 3 - Ryle Torsyn
Gold 4 - Lt. Lepira
Gold 5 - Davish 'Pops' Krail
Gold 6 - Hol Okand

 

note that John D. is Red 4, and his scenes were cut from the film (basically he plays a fresh kid pilot and goes splat, possibly after bagging one TIE)

he was played by Jack Klaff, and is credited in the film, even though he got cut.

the CCG leaves him out completely.

 

*cough*
Han and Chewie in the Falcon also survived.

*coughs*
I was only listing fighter pilots. Everyone knows that Han and Chewie lived. They weren't part of the Rebel flight group.

 

So if we now have names for all the Y-wings, where does that leave Farlander?

 

Note that this is all speculation, but there was a Blue Squadron in the novelization.

It's already been explained that Blue Squardon in the novelization and Red Squadron in the movie are the same squadron. And the novelizations Red Squadron was the movies Gold Squadron. However, what happened to Yellow and Green squadrons? In the novelization, it's four squadrons of Alliance fighters that attacks the Death Star, not two. Yellow Squadron's orders were to cover Red Squadron(Gold Squadron) on their trench run and Green Squadron was to cover Blue Squadron(Red Squadron) on their trench run. So that's forty-eight fighters, if all four were operating at full strength. We can also assume from the novelization that Blue Squadron(Red Squadron) was at full strength since Red Leader orders Blue Ten and Blue Twelve to make the trench run with him.

Granted, two X-wings and a Y-wing could be viewed as being several fighters. However, it says several X-wings, Y-wings, and one battered-looking frieghter. Now we know that frieghter is the Falcon, so that's easy to discount. However, the fact that Y-wing is plural rather than singular tells us that several is more than three fighters. Several therefore hints at more X-wings and Y-wings than we get to see in the movie. We can assume that some of them must have been from Yellow and Green Squadrons. We can also assume that some of the fighters that survived would have been ahead of the camera's POV.

 

I'd have to check my "library", but I'm pretty sure that multiple other sources list that only 3 Alliance fighters survived Yavin - a Y-wing and two X-wings.

 

Doesn't Rebel Assault show more fighters escaping from the Death Star, including a couple of A-wings?

 

Isn't the original Rebel Assault apocryphal or something like that?

 

More or less. It shows there being a battle on Hoth before Yavin, also Rookie One making a successful Death Star trench run. It was primarily created to entertain, not to be canon, I think. The sequel holds a lot more canon clout than the original.

 

The original Rebel Assult is as canon as the rest of non-Infinities EU is.