REBEL PILOTS: The Rebel pilots were trained to beat Imperial TieFighters(that being the main Imperial fighter). There training also included ground and space fighting. The pilots had to be ready for anything that might come from the Empire. At Hoth the Rebels had to fight a new threat, the AT-ATs. Not that many in the Rebel Alliance had seen them before. Only a few in command. The rebels first did the normal attack with lasers tactic. But this didn't work the walkers had been made to withstand lasers and others beam weapons. But the Empire had made one mistake. This mistake they did with all their walkers. They could be tripped then easilly destroyed. The rebels exploited the walkers advantage by doing this. But by that time it was too late. The pilots mission was to stall the Walkers. Which they did. Before Luke went down they got down one walker. Then when Wedge took charge Luke destroyed another by placing a sapercharge in it, and the Snowspeeders brought down another three. Only loosing 12 speeders, and 4 pilots. The rebels at the time of Hoth were just volunteers. And trained whenever they had time. It wasn't til later that whole planets joined and supplied them with much needed troops and supplies.
