PH: The strategy of the Imperial Death Squadron was supposed to be to emerge from hyperspace at a greater distance from Hoth, organize into attack formation, and then move inward to bombard the planet. Vader said that emerged from hyperspace too close to Hoth when attacking the Rebel base there. Pablo Hidalgo addressed this failure in strategy in Star Wars Insider #72 Shield’s perimeter, march overland to the shield generator, and General Maximilian Veers moved immediately to execute a groundĪssault: he would land Blizzard Force’s dozen AT-ATs beyond the With an orbital bombardment now impossible, Furious, Vader strangled Ozzel and promoted Firmus Planetary shield to protect their base-a potent defense the Empire did So he opted for surprise,ĭecanting from hyperspace close to the planet. Task force amid the chaos of the asteroids. Ozzel feared the rebels would call in the Alliance fleet, catching his Of the Hoth system and approach using its asteroid belt as cover, but Standard tactics called for Ozzel to assemble his squadron on the edge They were, however, much better armed (and crucially, defended by a planetary shield) than was anticipated.

Instead Ozzel took it upon himself to jump out of hyperspace right next to the planet, which theoretically would have been safer for his ships and more effective in catching the Rebels by surprise.Would most likely conclude that yet another band of smugglers was Vader was anticipating that they would approach Hoth under the cover of its extensive asteroid belt.Īn extensive asteroid field snarled in-system travel,Īnd regular asteroid impacts on Hoth created thermal signatures that.In practice he achieved the opposite by underestimating his opponent. Notably, Ozzel deviated from the Empire's standard battle tactics without speaking to Vader first, largely out of an abundance of caution and the impulse to win a quick victory. This is addressed in some detail in the Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy factbook. Is the issue that the Imperial forces didn't have enough time to prepare, and it would have been better to come in farther out and spread out, as this answer says? If so, why wouldn't forming up while already in the system also give the Rebels warning, and give them even more time to escape? All I can really think of is that they would have somehow known the range of the Rebel sensors, dropped out of hyperspace just past them, formed up, then quickly flown into range, but that seems hard to infer from the exchange between Vader and Veers. In fact, since being surprised gives them less time to prepare, it seems like this is a good strategy on the Empire's part. Why exactly was this a bad idea, and what was Vader's preferred strategy? The Rebels can apparently raise their shield instantly, so it seems like they would do that anyway, surprised or no. In the control room, aĬontroller urgently gestures for General Rieekan to check a computer From the script: Alarms sound throughout the hidden Rebel base.

Admiral ozzle came out of lightspeed