How did the rebels escape from Hoth?

[nasor]

I just re-watched TESB on DVD, and it’s not really clear to me how the rebels were able to escape. It appears that the rebels were facing the Executor and at least 4-5 star destroyers. Apparently one of the star destroyers allowed itself to be knocked out by an extremely powerful planetary ion cannon, but one would think that the remaining imperial ships would have been more cautious. If Vader’s forces weren’t sufficient to blockade the planet, why didn’t he call for more ships before he attacked?

Also, does anyone have an idea why Vader wanted to come out of hyperspace far away from Hoth? He strangles his admiral because he came out of hyperspace too close to the planet, but it would seem to me that coming in as close to the planet as possible would have been ideal for that sort of surprise attack, especially if they didn’t have enough ships to properly blockade the system. Was Vader hoping to somehow ‘sneak up’ to the planet in normal space? It seems like the Executor would make a pretty big blip on the rebel sensors.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I just re-watched TESB on DVD, and it’s not really clear to me how the rebels were able to escape. It appears that the rebels were facing the Executor and at least 4-5 star destroyers. Apparently one of the star destroyers allowed itself to be knocked out by an extremely powerful planetary ion cannon, but one would think that the remaining imperial ships would have been more cautious. If Vader’s forces weren’t sufficient to blockade the planet, why didn’t he call for more ships before he attacked?

The main objective of Hoth was to capture Luke Skywalker, I think. There were many transports that were hit, and only some got out.

Also, does anyone have an idea why Vader wanted to come out of hyperspace far away from Hoth? He strangles his admiral because he came out of hyperspace too close to the planet, but it would seem to me that coming in as close to the planet as possible would have been ideal for that sort of surprise attack, especially if they didn’t have enough ships to properly blockade the system. Was Vader hoping to somehow ‘sneak up’ to the planet in normal space? It seems like the Executor would make a pretty big blip on the rebel sensors.

I think that there's a flash on sensors when you come out of hyperspace, so he wanted to come out far back enough that he could sneak in his landing forces.

[Agent R]

Also, does anyone have an idea why Vader wanted to come out of hyperspace far away from Hoth? He strangles his admiral because he came out of hyperspace too close to the planet, but it would seem to me that coming in as close to the planet as possible would have been ideal for that sort of surprise attack, especially if they didn’t have enough ships to properly blockade the system. Was Vader hoping to somehow ‘sneak up’ to the planet in normal space? It seems like the Executor would make a pretty big blip on the rebel sensors.

I think that there's a flash on sensors when you come out of hyperspace, so he wanted to come out far back enough that he could sneak in his landing forces.

I think that's it. EU says ships produce a very noticable burst of "Cronau radiation" upon dropping out of hyperspace. Vader likely wanted to avoid that by exiting further out and making a realspace approach to Hoth, though I have no idea how he would keep his Star Destroyers from being detected once he got close enough.

[Lord Pounder]

I'd say the Imperial forces had no idea the rebels had such strong planetary defences> When the probe droid reports back to Vaders fleet it shows only a scan of the Shield Generators and not the other defences. Vaders plans of orbital bombardment are scrapped because the Admiral incharge brings the fleet out too close to the base, giving the rebels a chance to power up their shield, so he goes to plan B, englobe the planet and disable any escaping transports, while landing forces to take the base. But the Rebels managed to disable one of Death Squadrons Destroyers with the unknown Ion Canon thus creating a hole in the net, the rebels then exploite the hole.

[2000AD]

Also according to Tales of the Bounty Hunters a number of rebel trransports were captured and/or destroyed, at least 20 IIRC

[weemadando]

How did so many escape? The ion cannon was punching a "hole" in the Imperial fleet and a Rebel fighters were escorting the transports from the surface to the moment they jumped (then heading back to help out the next lot). It was literally a case of: clear atmosphere and jump...

[Praxis]

Also, does anyone have an idea why Vader wanted to come out of hyperspace far away from Hoth? He strangles his admiral because he came out of hyperspace too close to the planet, but it would seem to me that coming in as close to the planet as possible would have been ideal for that sort of surprise attack, especially if they didn’t have enough ships to properly blockade the system. Was Vader hoping to somehow ‘sneak up’ to the planet in normal space? It seems like the Executor would make a pretty big blip on the rebel sensors.

I think that there's a flash on sensors when you come out of hyperspace, so he wanted to come out far back enough that he could sneak in his landing forces.

I think that's it. EU says ships produce a very noticable burst of "Cronau radiation" upon dropping out of hyperspace. Vader likely wanted to avoid that by exiting further out and making a realspace approach to Hoth, though I have no idea how he would keep his Star Destroyers from being detected once he got close enough.

Launch the AT-AT's on small escape pods that appear as meteors on passive scans, without bringing the destroyers in close. That ought to do it.

[Isolder74]

Reikeen said it himself.

With all of the meteor activity in this system it will be hard to detect approaching ships.

with that concesion, he is addmitting that a force of star Detroyers will be able to sneak up on the base until they can get some type of passive network set up. And even then it might be iffy

[Connor MacLeod]

The Rebels suffered a bit over 50 percent starship casualties in the escape from Hoth due to Imperial blockade and pursuit. The reason why any were able to esacpe were due to several reasons:

1.) The Imperials came out too close to the system. This denied them the ability of a surprise-attack bombardment, gave the Rebels time to prepare their defenses and evacuation, and deprived the Imperials of preparation time against the Rebels upon emergence. (Most of which was discussed in "A World To Conquer", in one of the SW Adventure Journals)

2.) As already mentioned, the Rebels had defenses - the shield prevented bombardment, and the ion cannon (though some sources imply there might have been more tha none) provided covering fire for evacuation (as well as preventing the Imperials from pursuing escaping ships and opening up holes in their blockade.)

3.) The Empire had no idea from what side of the planet ships would come from, even though the Rebels were concentrated in mostly one locale. This necessitated that the Imperials "spread out" and cover ma larger portion of the planet to screen against escaping ships. Even assuming they didn't blockade teh entire planet, they had maybe dozens, or a few hundred ships there, tops (if that.) By contrast, consider the blockade of Naboo (a rather minor and low-trade/industry world with fewer starships than a major planet like Coruscant, Kuat, or Commenor.) necessitated thousands of ships several miles in diameter for a "full" blockade, and even then it wasn't perfect.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Launch the AT-AT's on small escape pods that appear as meteors on passive scans, without bringing the destroyers in close. That ought to do it.

The AT-MT has a pod of this type so its not to unreasonable to a ssume a bigger one couldnt be used to drop AT-AT's. If this is impossible just unload a large number of AT-ST's in pod behind the trench line along with infnatry

[Connor MacLeod]

Also, does anyone have an idea why Vader wanted to come out of hyperspace far away from Hoth? He strangles his admiral because he came out of hyperspace too close to the planet, but it would seem to me that coming in as close to the planet as possible would have been ideal for that sort of surprise attack, especially if they didn’t have enough ships to properly blockade the system. Was Vader hoping to somehow ‘sneak up’ to the planet in normal space? It seems like the Executor would make a pretty big blip on the rebel sensors.

Galaxy Guide 3 suggests that his primary reason for not wanting to arrive too close was to use the Hoth asteroid belt to screen his emergence. The TESB novelization and RAdio Drama collectively suggest that Vader's interest was in a "clean" bombardment (to take out starport facilities and defenses) followed by a more simple "conquest" because he wanted to avoid a needless and costly battle that disabling the planetary shield would necessitate. "A World to Conquer" further suggests ( as I alreay mentioned) that coming out from further away allows a fleet to better organize itself for blockading purposes, even though it increases the chances of detection by enemy sensors. (Of course, by starting off with a long-range bombardment he would have tipped them off to an attack, and the bombardment could nullify many of their defenses preemptively anyhow.)

As for detecting the Executor, that depends on how strong of emissions it was giving out. IF the fleet moved towards the planet from a grreater distance "running silent", there is a good chance the Rebels would not notice anything (especialyl with the aforementioned meteor activity.). OF course, active sensing would be able to detect Death Squadron's approach, but active sensing would have given their presence away (and let them know they were aware of what was going on.) - and they were expressly trying to remain hidden.
and visual scanners (while neither relying on the emission of active pulses nor the reception of target radiation.) would have a HUGE volume of space to scan.