On the Battle of Hoth:
Lord Darth Vader is approximately equivalent to our President in official function regarding the military. Lord Vader was installed as the Imperial Armed Services** Supreme Commander*. He was responsible for overall strategy, but Ozzel, as flag officer of Death Squadron, was ultimately responsible for tactics. Apparently Vader suspected Luke was with Leia and Han Solo. There is no evidence to suggest he knew where Luke was and simply didn't go there. In fact, that runs entirely counter to the fact that we know Vader's entire motivation was Skywalker.
It was FADM Piett's job as commander of Death Squadron to competently maintain a blockade and assault the Rebel Base. It was
his failure. In military operations decisions and tactics are delegated at the various levels. Piett was not able to do this. However, the late FADM Ozzel did bring the fleet in too close which provoked the raising of a deflector shield. It was
this incompetence which prevented Death Squadron from scanning for the ion cannon (according to TISB, sensors and scanners do not operate through planetary shields).
On Alderaan and Hating the Empire:
The destruction of Alderaan was perfectly within the Emperor's adoption of the Tarkin Doctrine. Alderaan, the restricted aristocratic capital world of the Alderaani Sector and Viceroyalty, was funneling money, arms, and recruits into the Rebel Alliance, as well as giving the sympathy and a voice within the Imperial Senate. Reducing it to glowing embers was a powerful message to other influencial and aristocractic Core Worlds like Chandrilla, that supporting the Alliance was fatal.
Lord Vader remarks that the public would lament the death of the Emperor in the novelisation of
Return of the Jedi. The SE version of
Return of the Jedi depicts a demonstration of no more than several tens of thousands in a square on Coruscant. The population of the planet was equivalent to 10^10 times as great. It was miniscule. Hell, just the expected fraction of Rebel sympathizers and Alderaanians should easily make many times that number.
On the Death Star I:
The first Death Star was equipped with powerful jamming equipment which rendered fighter targeting computers impotent: there was
very, very little to no possibility that
any fighter could make the shot.
Only Luke could, and as far as Tarkin knew, Vader was the last of his kind. He had no reason to suspect any danger. Tarkin assessed the risk, and concluded that there was no significant probability of success. And he was right! There was no way to know or to reasonably guess that
Vader's son would be among the pilots and could use the Force to score a shot. Overcautiousness has lead to many a defeat or failure in the Real World. Incompetence is knowing better and just being stategically stupid.
Raising all fighters is patently retarded. It would make friendly-fire and crashes very likely in the dense fire and poor manuverability conditions. He knew that Vader's squadron was being dispatched, it should be more than enough--and indeed, only a last minute stroke of luck made it not enough.
On the Millennium Falcon's Hyperdrive:
Totally wrecking the hyperdrive would not be effective: Lando and especially Chewbacca were intimately familiar with the
Falcon's drive systems. They would be aware that it would not function and not attempt to escape from Bespin aboard it.
Ideally, the Rebels would like to escape aboard the fast and familiar
Falcon, programmed with coordinates to Rebel roundezvous points ASAP. If they knew it was futile, they'd simply slip out via less reliable alternative means: Lando was able to inform the majority of Cloud City's population to escape before a garrison arrived. Many of her citizens, administration, and business must have had hyperspace-capable vessels. Only now, the Rebels have slipped out amongst a sea of private ships, none of which the Executor can readily identify from the others. The Rebels escape because the
Executor cannot possibly detain all the vessels nor can she identify which the Rebels are aboard.'
On the Battle of Endor (Space):
The Sector Group Deployment around the Rebel armada at Endor was not incompetent. The ISDs could not manouver at close range, and lighter Rebel cruisers could manouver into their ventral and aft faces to pound them with more effective, spread-out lighter guns--the geometry is highly unfavorable for the ISD's primary armament at point-blank range. The Rebel cruisers' more varied and lighter, more flexible armament was more effective. Nevertheless, they were losing.
A combination of the Death Star II, and the Sanctuary Moon made a gravity well the Rebels would have to manouver away from to escape. Likewise with the Sector Group. Additionally, options were limited by a set of Interdictors further out in the system, which eliminated nearly all hyperroutes to nearby systems.
That leaves reinforcement. The Empire could signal for the strategic forces or reserves in the Core, which would require the Holonet which requires lowering the shields. That leaves subspace transmissions and local forces. Most of the local Sector Group probably made up the deployment at Endor, and Sector Group HQ could've been beyond ISD subspace range. Additionally, a nearby black hole and spatial anomaly (
) known as Endor's Gate further confounded communications and escape routes.
The Sector Group was panicked and confused by the abrupt termination of the Emperor's mind-influence. It was the shock of severing the connection so quickly which lead to panic.
[i]Return of the Jedi[/i], Chapter IX wrote:For the first time, the Death Star rocked. The collision with the exploding Destroyer was only the beginning, leading to various systems breakdowns, which led to reactor meltdowns, which led to personnel panic, abandonment of posts, further malfunctions, and general chaos.
Smoke was everywhere, substantial rumblings came from all directions at once, people were running and shouting. Electrical fires, steam explosions, cabin depressurizations, disruptions of chain-of-command. Added to this, the continued bombardments by Rebel cruisers -- smelling fear in the enemy -- merely heightened the sense of hysteria that was already pervasive.
For the Emperor was dead. The central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire was gone; and when the dark side was this diffused, this nondirected -- this was simply where it led.
Confusion.
Desperation.
Damp fear.
Additionally, the faltering Sector Group fought for three additional hours following the Death Star II's explosion.
On the Battle of Endor (Ground):
There's precisely zero information regarding the progress of the battle of attrition one way or another on Endor. Only that its quite clear that scout walkers do shitty in forests.
The victory was scored only by capturing the AT-ST by Chewie.
*Note: The Imperial Armed Services presumably means at least the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Army, the Imperial Marines, Imperial Intelligence, and likely an Imperial starfighter corps. It is possible that COMPForce and the Imperial Security Bureau are also part of the Armed Services, but they report the the political organization COMPNOR, not to Moff Governors, Grand Moff Governors, and the Emperor and his advisors directly, as the other Services do.
**Note: Two terms have been used to refer to the CinC of the Imperial Armed Services. In
Dark Empire, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker is addressed and refered to as "Supreme Commander Skywalker." Skywalker in this capacity is paralleled to his father several times.
However, in
Dark Empire II and
Empire's End, Luke's replacements are addressed as "Executor Sedriss (and Nist, etc.)" and hold a position called "Executor." Sedriss is refered to as "Dark-Side executor and military dictator" by the text, and certainly in Palpatine's absence controls both the military and political sides of the Empire, as well as presiding over the various cadre of Dark Side users. "Military Executor" certainly seems to literally stand-for "Palpatine's executor" in the traditional sense. Sedriss is a military dictator because, he is empowered in an emergency to posess all power, and according to
The Dark Side Sourcebook, Sedriss did serve in the Imperial Armed Forces, and presumably still holds a rank in the Army or Navy. Contrastingly, he elects to dress in the garb of Palpatine's "Dark Jedi," rather than his uniform, which is probably a political gesture to show his power over military officers who probably outrank him. Tedryn-Sha is named Palpatine's "second-in-command," which probably deals with authority over the Dark Side users and irrelevent to discussion.
Based on this, I must say that Lord Vader was probably invested with the position of "Supreme Commander," not "Executor." He was a civilian.
Just destroyed one base, not really that essential for the Rebels, 17 ships (that would be Galofree transports and X-wings - not something to be really proud of) & some snowspeeders. Imperials lost 3 AT-ATs on surface, and a Star Destroyer (one or maybe more) during the foolhardy asteroid chase and a few TIE Fighters. All main Rebel personnel escaped, including the most dangerous Jedi-wannbe. Having a rebel General (Solo) at hand, Vader gave him to Boba Fett. The Empire got virtually nothing from the whole operation. Except that Vader revealed Luke the big stuff.
Hijack an AT-ST, or what? In fact, the AT-STs were not even meant to intervene. And we saw Han Solo blew up the lock on the bunker doors when the Rebels entered first time.
