Battle of Endor

In 4 ABY, after learning of the Death Star II's existence and its state of construction, the Rebel Alliance formed plans for the assault of the Death Star II and its destruction above the forest moon of Endor.

The Battle Plan

The Rebellion planned to destroy the second Death Star in a manner reminiscent of the first Death Star's destruction. However, a major obstacle to this plan was the existence of the shield around the Death Star II that was being projected from a base on Endor. As such, a plan was made to deal with this, it called for:

• A group of commandos would be inserted onto the moon and destroy the shield projector.
• After the removal of the shield, the Rebel Alliance fleet would be free to engage the Death Star and destroy it, again with snubfighters being the main method of destruction.
• Rebel starfighters would fly through the superstructure of the Death Star II and use concussion missiles and proton torpedoes to detonate the core, causing a reaction that would destroy the Death Star II.

How it actually occured

However, they did not know that the Emperor had planned the leakage of the plans and existence of the Death Star II and was preparing a trap for the Rebel Alliance.

The commandos sent to the moon's surface, led by Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia, were allowed to land by the Imperial forces in orbit around Endor's moon. On the ground, however, they met fierce opposition, and only destroyed the shield generator with the help of the indigenous Ewoks.

In orbit, the situation was not what the Alliance expected. Because of the unexpected opposition on the surface of the moon, the shield was not lowered when the Alliance fleet arrived in system. Also, the Emperor had gathered many of the ships from the surrounding sectors and was waiting for the Rebel fleet. Worst of all, the information the Bothans obtained about the superlaser was false; it was fully operational. The Death Star II was used to target the Alliance capital ships, forcing them to engage the fleet of Star Destroyers at point blank.

With the eventual lowering of the shields around the Death Star II, Lando Calrissian, Wedge Antilles, Tycho Celchu, and many other Alliance pilots were able to enter the superstructure of the Death Star II. Lando and Wedge were able to detonate the core, resulting in the destruction of the spacestation.

With the Death of the Emperor at Darth Vader's hand, and the loss of the Death Star II and Executor, the Imperial fleet became disorganized, and many captains ordered their ships into a retreat. The Battle of Endor had been won by the Rebel Alliance and a crushing blow had been delivered to the Empire.