Battle of Hoth ( 0 BBY ) A battle occurred in 0 BBY , shortly before the Battle of Yavin , when Imperial forces located the Alliance to Restore the Republic ' s Gamma Base on Hoth . The Rebels were forced to evacuate Hoth and flee to Yavin 4 . History . Prelude . Shortly after the Battle of Toprawa , Imperial forces under Darth Vader tracked Princess Leia Organa ' s CR90 corvette " Tantive IV " to Tatooine in an attempt to retrieve the plans to their Death Star battlestation after they were captured by Rebel agents . In an effort to keep them out of Imperial hands , Organa sent the plans to the planet ' s surface in the care of the droids R2 - D2 and C - 3PO . The Imperials began a search of the planet and , upon discovering the presence of a Rebel base there , launched forces to destroy it . However , a group of Rebels were able to escape Tatooine and fled to Gamma Base on Hoth . Determined to locate the Rebels , Vader dispatched Viper probe droids to search for them . The battle . After one of the probe droids arrived on Hoth , the commander of Gamma Base dispatched Rookie One in a T - 47 airspeeder to investigate , ordering him to destroy any probe droids he found . Rookie One soon confirmed the presence of a probe droid and the Rebels prepared to evacuate while the pilot pursued the droid into a cave . After destroying the probe , Rookie One brought his snowspeeder out of the cave and rendezvoused with other Rebel snowspeeders to assist in the defense of Gamma Base — All Terrain Armored Transports were approaching the base and the Rebels needed more time to evacuate . The Rebels fought bravely against the heavily armored All Terrain Armored Transports , succeeding in bringing down two of the walkers with their laser cannons . As the Rebels retreated , Rookie One ' s snowspeeder suffered a power loss and he was unable to stay airborne . However , he told the others to carry on without him and ensure the safety of the fleeing transports while he attempted to return to base on foot . Unable to wait for the downed pilot , the commander oversaw the evacuation , leaving Rookie One alone on the planet . By the time he crossed the frozen landscape to reach Gamma Base , the base was overrun by Imperial stormtroopers . Rookie One fought his way through the base , eventually reaching the hangar where he boarded the last remaining T - 65 X - wing starfighter , making his escape in the nick of time as stormtroopers fired futilely after him . Rookie One ' s departure was just in time to assist the last GR - 75 medium transport as it attempted to escape to hyperspace . The pilot joined up with Commander Ru Murleen ' s group and the Rebels fought waves of TIE fighters , keeping them away from the transport until it safely jumped out of the system . Once the Rebel pilots were clear of the Imperial fighters , they followed the transport to safety . At some point during the battle , the Star Tours - owned " StarSpeeder 1000 " Star Tours Flight 1401 , having just escaped from Spaceport THX1138 with a Rebel spy onboard from Imperial forces occupying the station , arrived at Hoth . It briefly bore witness to the final stages of the battle , and was briefly damaged by a blaster bolt from one of the AT - ATs , and narrowly avoiding being crushed by one . It eventually gained enough traction after falling off a cliff to exit Hoth . Aftermath . The Rebels fled to Yavin Base on Yavin 4 . However , the Imperials had captured Organa and allowed her to escape , tracking her back to Yavin 4 . Unconcerned by the Imperial failure to prevent the Rebel evacuation of Gamma Base , Vader prepared for a major strike on Yavin Base itself . Following the Battle of Yavin , the Rebels would eventually return to Hoth and establish Echo Base , banking on the idea that the Empire would not suspect the idea of the Rebels returning there . However , they were once again forced to evacuate in 3 ABY when the Imperials discovered the new base . Behind the scenes . The battle made its only appearance in the 1993 LucasArts video game " " by Vincent Lee . The game featured an original story , though many of the events were designed to be reminiscent of events shown in the " Star Wars " movies . The battle had much in common with the Battle of Hoth from 1980 ' s and , although the planet was never identified in the game itself , both the manual for the Sega CD version and the box for the PC version identify the ice - world featured as " Hoth " . The Rebel presence on Hoth in 0 BBY poses a continuity error : According to earlier sources , planet Hoth was unknown to the Alliance Intelligence prior to the Battle of Yavin , until discovered accidentally when Luke Skywalker crashed on the planet . Another source gives a different account , that the Rebels learned the existence of Hoth by the Habassa species , also after the Battle of Yavin . In the development of the battle depicted in " " , George Lucas suggested to the Imagineers to keep the battle plan instead of a tauntauns and wampas scenario they conceived to avoid continuity issues , offering the suggestion that the Rebels and Imperial forces clashed on Hoth before , but the Empire did not expect the Rebels to return to Hoth afterwards . The staff , when hearing this from Lucas , were surprised that he was willing to sacrifice continuity for this . In the ride " " , one of the randomly chosen destinations upon escaping from Imperial forces congregated at the Star Tours space station was Hoth , which depicted a battle between the Rebel forces and the Imperial forces . As the ride ' s story is strongly implied to take place between 2 BBY ( the founding of the Rebel Alliance ) and 0 BBY ( the events of " A New Hope " ) , it ' s very likely that this was the battle depicted . The Hoth scenario , while random , is always chosen during the middle of the ride . It should also be noted that the Hoth section is the only one of the three middle scenarios ( Hoth , Kashyyyk , and Tatooine ) that deals with an actual combat situation .