Why did the Rebel fleet not bombard the Shield Generator on Endor?

Question

Once the Rebel fleet showed at Endor there was no need for stealth operations.

Soon after arriving, the Rebels discover the stealth mission was not successful and begin a battle over the moon of Endor.

Why did the Rebels not use their ships to attack the shield generator?

Looking a the hologram displayed on Home One, the shield only covers Death Star II, not the moon. Furthermore, the shield generator's location on the Moon would not be hard to find as it had to be within the proximity of Death Star II and stood well above the tree line. It seems that even a few X-wings, B-wings or Y-Wings could have made short work of the Tower.

One possible answer is that the Tower was also protected by a shield. Okay, but they would not even attempt to bomb it?

Perhaps the location of the strike team was unclear and they did not want to risk the lives of the Strike team. If this was the case, why did they not target the tower or the dish to disable the shield projector unit?

Answer 1

Based on the graphic we saw earlier in the film, the shield appears to also cover the Endor Shield Generator Station. This would make an aerial bombardment of the moon as ineffective as an attack on the Death Star itself.

At best you might be able to devastate the jungle a few dozens of miles away, killing the indigenous, but leaving the station unharmed.

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You may also wish to note that the film's official novelisation states that the Endor Moon has its own planetary shield, also projected from the Shield Station.

At the center of the briefing room was a large, circular light-table, projected above which a holographic image of the unfinished Imperial Death Star hovered beside the Moon of Endor, whose scintillating protective deflector shield encompassed them both.

_{^{Return of the Jedi - Official Novelisation}}

Answer 2

Its shield also protects it

While the old novelizations aren’t precisely canon, the new Disney canon novelizations make this clear. We even see the Rebel commanders discussing that this is why they can’t attack it directly:

But now General Madine is outlining the plan for getting rid of the Death Star’s defenses.

“The shield generator is, of course, protected by its own shield. Even if we could get our starfighters close enough, they’d have little chance of knocking it out. However, the moon itself is covered by a thick forest. Perfect for a stealth mission.”

_{Beware the Power of the Dark Side!}

As such, the shield generator is just as protected as the Death Star.

Answer 3

Two reasons:

There was a shield covering the moon, too.

When Han and Chewbacca take the stolen shuttle to Endor, they must first get clearance to land from Vader's Super Star Destroyer, using a stolen code. Note that they don't just ask for clearance, but also shield deactivation. From the script:

HAN Shuttle Tydirium requesting deactivation of the deflector shield.

CONTROLLER (over radio) Shuttle Tydirium, transmit the clearance code for shield passage.

and then when the code finally clears:

HAN They're not goin' for it, Chewie.

CONTROLLER (filtered) Shuttle Tydirium, deactivation of the shield will commence immediately. Follow your present course.

In the movie, it's easy to assume they're talking only about the shield projected around the Death Star, and the need for deactivation is as much to avoid suspicion, since they intend to land a short distance away from the installation and the Death Star shield is the main focus of the plot. My understanding is the novelization makes the distinction clearer, though I haven't actually read it.

There was (at least) a Super Star Destroyer to deal with

Vader's command ship was there to guard the construction. The Rebel fleet would have had it's hands full just with that one ship. They didn't know about the additional fleet waiting for the trap, but if they had that would have only made things worse. The only reason they were able to win is the Emperor wanted to play his little game with the Death Star laser, and ordered the fleet ships not to attack. This gave the Rebel fleet the opportunity to bring down a few enemy ships, including the command ship. An enemy force that was actively engaged with them would have been enough to prevent or least significantly hinder a bombardment.

Answer 4

There are enough examples in the games such as Rebellion and Empire at War, which show orbital bombardment is useless against planetary shields. This is also the case in Empire Strikes Back, where the shield generator needed to be taken down before the Empire's attack could begin. In the case of ESB, we have to assume this isn't a full planetary shield but only covered the Rebel base, as evidenced by the Empire landing ground troops outside the perimeter and then moving them under the shield. The Decipher Customizable Card game explains this in detail: it wasn't a full planetary shield (it only extended to the "Ice Plains" 5th marker) but was still powerful enough to be immune to bombardment.

Taken from the Advanced Rulebook:

The Hoth: Main Power Generators site produces an energy shield which is “strong enough to withstand any bombardment.” This shield protects much of Hoth for the Light Side by preventing many forms of Dark Side deployment and movement; however, the Dark Side may deploy or land beyond the shield and “march in” to Echo Base. When the Main Power Generators site is face up on table, the energy shield covers all Echo Base sites and the first three marker sites. If the 5th marker is on table, the shield will reach the 4th marker, and if the 6th is on table it will reach the 5th marker. The shield will never extend beyond the 5th marker. At shielded sites, the Dark Side may not:

• deploy vehicles, starships or characters (not even spies) unless specifically allowed to deploy to shielded sites;

• take off, land, shuttle, docking bay transit, perform a Bombing Run, or use abilities that relocate cards (e.g., Elis Helrot, Chief Bast); or

• add power to battles as a result of starships controlling the system (e.g., from the Hoth system location, a Victory-Class Star Destroyer or Fear Will Keep Them In Line).

The energy shield does not protect the Light Side from a ground assault “underneath the shield.” At shielded sites, the Dark Side may

• move vehicles and characters from site to site;

• deploy and use creatures, weapons, Effects, and other cards normally; and

• perform any actions not otherwise prohibited by these rules.

The energy shield does not restrict the Light Side in any way (because conceptually the Rebels can activate and deactivate the shield to allow their own forces to pass). When the energy shield is not active, both sides can deploy and move to Hoth normally. See Locations - Battlegrounds, Ch. 9.

So, whilst there's no canon/in-universe reference I'm aware of explicitly stating that the Endor base was shielded, I think it's a fair assumption that they had a shield around the facility; it's almost implied by the need for the rebels to land out in the forest, beyond the edge of such a shield.

As to why the base commanders weren't immediately put on alert when the rebel shuttle landed out in the forest beyond the shield instead of at the landing platform patrolled by the AT-AT is probably a topic for another question.

Answer 5

They could bombard Endor's moon around the area of the shield generator with atomic bombs or blaster rays to turn the rock around and under the shield generator into molten lava. Thus the shield generator would gradually melt and eventually stop working.

So why send a team to infiltrate why not just plan on blasting the surface near the generator once they arrived?

Or why not send one person in the stolen shuttle to land near the generator inside the shield, turn on the timer on a gigaton bomb in the shuttle, and then fly away as fast as he could on a small one man flying machine?

Possibly they didn't want to do that because of the moon's status as a nature sanctuary.

Since the explosion of the Death Star might have wiped out all life on the moon anyway that might seem a foolish hesitation. See Discussions of the Endor holocaust.