Y-wing Starfighter

One of the earliest engagements to feature Y-wings was the campaign to destroy General Grievous’s heavy cruiser Malevolence. Anakin Skywalker and Plo Koon led Shadow Squadron’s clone pilots against the Separatist battleship.

To catch up with the Malevolence, Anakin tried a risky strategy, leading the Y-wings through the hazardous Kaliida Nebula along an old smuggler route known as the Balmorra Run.

The Kaliida Nebula was home to a nest of nebray mantas, forcing the Y-wings to take evasion action as the massive spacegoing beasts emerged without warning from gas clouds.

Shadow Squadron lost five clone pilots to vulture droids and the Malevolence’s massive ion cannon, making the original plan of attacking the bridge impractical. Anakin improvised by targeting one of the heavy cruiser’s ion cannons instead.

Shadow Squadron’s remaining Y-wings took aim at the Malevolence’s starboard ion cannon with torpedoes. The squadron’s bombing run overloaded her weapons and forced Grievous to flee.

At the Battle of Ryloth, a squadron of Y-wings helped break the Separatist siege of the Twi’lek homeworld, clearing the way for a Republic ground assault.

On Malastare, Y-wing bombers were instrumental in stopping a Separatist onslaught, dropping the experimental electro-proton bomb on an advancing army of battle droids. The bomb fried the droids’ circuits, eliminating them as a threat – but also disturbed an ancient Zillo Beast.

After Separatist warships ambushed a Jedi Cruiser carrying C-3PO and R2-D2, the droids escaped in a Y-wing, crash-landing on Patitite Pattuna. Artoo’s capable piloting and the Y-wing’s tough armor allowed the droids to survive the crash – and experience a series of odd adventures.

Years later, stripped-down Y-wings were part of the complement of starfighters assigned to the rebel base on Yavin 4. Gold Squadron, led by veteran pilot Dutch Vander, was the first starfighter group to attempt the dangerous run down the Death Star trench to target the battle station’s thermal exhaust port.

The Y-wings’ proton torpedoes could penetrate the ray shields protecting the exhaust port, and the fighters’ tough combination of shields and armor offered protection against turbolaser fire from a tower emplacement defending the target. But the Y-wings were vulnerable in the narrow confines of the trench.

Unfortunately for Gold Squadron, Darth Vader had ordered the Death Star’s TIE fighters to join the fight. Vader and his wingmen settled in behind the Y-wings and destroyed them before they could reach their objective.

At the Battle of Endor, Alliance Y-wings were part of the attack on the second Death Star, targeting Star Destroyers at point-blank range and then racing into the superstructure in a desperate bid to reach the main reactor at the battle station’s heart.