Beryl Chiffonage

During the Galactic Civil War, Beryl Chiffonage was a highly regarded military strategist within the Alliance to Restore the Republic. His involvement with the Rebellion started in the early years of the Alliance's fight against the Galactic Empire, prior to the Battle of Yavin. Due to his close association with Alliance High Command, the specifics of his duties and locations were generally kept secret.

Chiffonage's responsibilities within High Command often involved assisting in the development of offensive and defensive strategic frameworks for specific Rebel bases, collaborating with prominent Alliance leaders such as Generals Jan Dodonna and Carlist Rieekan. He also worked in tandem with Alliance Intelligence under Chief of Intelligence Airen Cracken as a member of the Task Force on Alliance Security, compiling reports on individuals who presented a major threat to the Alliance. By 2 ABY, Chiffonage, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel, played a key role in the execution of numerous Alliance operations, including the Engagement at Jestan. Before the conclusion of 2 ABY, Chiffonage had an encounter with mercenaries on the astronomical body known as Liaq.

When Risiev Credal, a rising tactical prodigy, was assigned to the planet Dantooine, Chiffonage was stationed at High Command's headquarters there. Chiffonage spent some time training Credal, who was seen as a potential future leader of the Alliance, in tactics for a wide array of situations, including the Dsalisn Theories regarding low atmosphere combat and the urban combat strategies used on the planet Thyrsus. Credal's achievements demonstrated the quality of the expert instruction he received.

Chiffonage, Credal, and Luke Skywalker, the leader of the renowned Rogue Squadron, collaborated to create a set of innovative tactical maneuvers for T-47 airspeeder squadrons to use in the event of an attack by Imperial walkers. The "Rogue Doctrine," which comprised three distinct strategic elements drawn from the collective experience of Rogue Squadron pilots over the years, became the benchmark for combat airspeeder tactics. Chiffonage and Credal specifically developed Attack Pattern Delta, a risky maneuver in which a group of speeders approached a walker in a single line, presenting the walker with a single target to fire upon. This allowed the other speeders to have a clear shot and a safe escape while the walker could only target one speeder at a time.

Chiffonage and Skywalker also developed what was perhaps the most challenging element of the doctrine, drawing inspiration from a group of primitive beings. Chiffonage recognized that most Rebel weapons were ineffective against walkers due to their size and heavy armament. He sought to find a way to exploit the walkers' size, turning it into a weakness. Chiffonage realized that the walkers could potentially be crushed by their own weight if the Rebels could find a way to trip them. During an expedition to the primitive planet Verig, Chiffonage found his solution in the native nomadic hunters of Verig, who used a bola-like weapon—a long rope with stones tied to each end—to trip the massive, elephantine Pryss-creatures. Applying what he had learned from Verig, as well as lessons from previous Rebel operations on the planets Corellia and Balmorra, where Rebel pilots had improvised a way to trip advancing All Terrain Armored Transports using the tow cables of T-47 airspeeders as a last resort, Chiffonage personally designed a special high-powered harpoon attached to a flexisteel tow cable and fusion disc for use in a unique tactical maneuver of his own. The resulting harpoon and tow cable, attached to the rear of the T-47, would be used to entangle a walker's legs and bring it down, effectively neutralizing the war machine. In 2 ABY, Credal jumped into hyperspace while overseeing patrols in the Anoat system, never to be heard from again, for reasons that High Command and Intelligence could not fathom. Even though Intelligence suspected him of being a traitor, Chiffonage submitted a report to the Task Force on Alliance Security regarding Credal, praising his contributions and expressing his hope for Credal's eventual return.

By 3 ABY, Chiffonage had been promoted to commander and was serving with High Command under Rieekan at the secret Echo Base on the planet Hoth. He was frequently stationed in the base's command center as a controller. He was present in the command center, working with Princess Leia Organa, when Han Solo informed Rieekan of his need to leave the Alliance to resolve personal matters.

Soon after, an Imperial Viper probe droid discovered Echo Base, prompting Rieekan to order an immediate evacuation of the facility. Chiffonage and Skywalker knew that the Alliance would face Imperial walkers in the impending engagement, and they planned to use the tactics of Rogue Doctrine with the base's modified T-47s, known as "snowspeeders," to mount as much of a defense as possible in order to delay the Imperial attack. During the Battle of Hoth, Skywalker and Rogue Group found that the thick armored hulls of the Imperial AT-ATs were impervious to their speeders' blaster cannons, rendering Attack Pattern Delta ineffective. As a last resort, Skywalker instructed the Rogues to use their harpoons and tow cables to trip the walkers' legs in an effort to halt their advance.

Despite the Rebellion's significant defeat at Hoth, Chiffonage's maneuvers led to the destruction of several AT-ATs during the battle, a success that the Rebels owed directly to the nomads of Verig. While a large portion of Echo Base's command staff managed to evacuate the planet and evade the Imperial blockade in orbit, Chiffonage was apprehended when his escape transport attempted to pass through an Imperial checkpoint.

While Chiffonage received credit for developing the concept of using tow cables to trip AT-AT walkers on Hoth, Davin Felth, a young Imperial stormtrooper recruit, had proposed a similar maneuver years earlier, in 0 BBY, during an AT-AT training exercise. Felth suggested to Colonel Maximilian Veers, who was then in charge of the Imperial AT-AT program, that the walkers' legs were particularly susceptible to being entangled and tripped with a cable. Veers was highly impressed by Felth's discovery, but he kept the information secret and reassigned Felth to the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps to prevent the secret from harming his career, which was closely tied to the success of the walkers. Ironically, Veers would later face Chiffonage's identical tactic at Hoth, with somewhat devastating consequences.

Wedge Antilles, the first pilot to bring down an AT-AT at Hoth using the maneuver, would employ the tactic again several months later to trip three more walkers at the Battle of Kothlis. Rogue Squadron assisted in securing the plans for the Empire's second Death Star superweapon during that battle.

Before Alliance military briefings, Beryl Chiffonage would often spend a considerable amount of time reminiscing about his early career with Airen Cracken and Credal. They would listen intently to his stories, regardless of whether they contained tactical lessons. Even after Credal defected from the Alliance, Chiffonage expressed that while he would severely reprimand his former student, he also wanted to tell him about his encounter with mercenaries on Liaq. He was a fair-skinned [Human](/article/human-legends] with brown hair.

Throughout his career, Beryl Chiffonage demonstrated exceptional tactical acumen in developing strategies for Alliance High Command. His skills led to his assignments to the Rebel headquarters on Dantooine and Hoth. He contributed to the success of several Alliance operations and helped train the talented Risiev Credal. Chiffonage's deep understanding of Imperial battle tactics was vital in creating the Rogue Doctrine with Credal and Luke Skywalker. He personally designed the harpoon and tow cable, drawing inspiration from the primitive natives of Verig and past Rogue Squadron operations, which would be attached to the rear of Echo Base's T-47 airspeeders for use by Rebel gunners as a backup defense against Imperial walkers.

During his time at Echo Base, Chiffonage wore the standard-issue cold-weather fatigues worn by Hoth personnel, which included the uniform's padded vest, lightweight tunic, leggings, and boots. He wore gloves and a headset while working at his control console.

Beryl Chiffonage was originally created as a character for the 1988 West End Games board game Assault on Hoth. The game established him as the innovative Rebel tactician who invented the harpoon and tow cable tactic used during the Battle of Hoth. Chiffonage was later included in the first edition of the 1989 West End Games sourcebook Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back, which provided further details about Chiffonage's role in developing the Rebel tactics used at the Battle of Hoth, particularly Attack Pattern Delta and the harpoon and tow cable trick. The 1995 Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game supplement Alliance Intelligence Reports expanded on Chiffonage's backstory, portraying the character as a valuable tactician for both Alliance High Command and Alliance Intelligence.

The February 24, 2004 article Who's Who in Echo Base, written by Josh Radke for Star Wars Insider 74, identified Chiffonage as one of the Rebel extras in the Echo Base command center who worked with Princess Leia Organa at the beginning of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, retconning the film as the character's first appearance. The scenes in the Echo Base control room featuring the character retconned as Chiffonage were filmed on Stage 1 at Elstree Studios between March 26 and 28, 1979.

Assault on Hoth originally established Chiffonage as male, but Alliance Intelligence Reports later contradicted this by identifying the character as female, making it the only source to do so. Radke's Who's Who article identifies Chiffonage as male—one of the real-life actors seen in The Empire Strikes Back—as does The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, released in 2008. This article considers Alliance Intelligence Reports to be a canonical inconsistency, given the majority of sources.

In 2014, Chiffonage was included in Star Wars in 100 Scenes. That source misspelled his given name as "Berryl" and used an image of the character Romas Navander instead of Chiffonage.