At around half-past 3 in the afternoon, on stardate 44002.3, Starfleet would suffer one of
its most dramatic losses to an outside threat in a single confrontation. This was the battle of Wolf
359, only 7 point 9 lightyears from the Sol system and it marked the first battle against the Borg.
We see the build-up to the battle and overhear part of the engagement as well as witness the
aftermath, but we don't see much of the battle itself outside of a few scenes.
Starfleet deployed 40 ships to oppose the single Borg cube, but this single cube had
recently assimilated the mind of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and as such, it had an
intimate knowledge of not only the Enterprise’s plans but the positions and formations Starfleet
relied on for fleet deployment as well as a general understanding of their ships.
Additionally, this was the first time Starfleet had truly engaged the Borg and they did not know
their sheer level of power involved. When combined with the fact the Borg therefore had superior
intel, it is not surprising that Starfleet was so soundly beaten. They had even reached out to
the Klingon Empire for reinforcements, however these ships never arrived, leaving Starfleet
and its 40 vessels to halt the Borg’s advance. So let’s take a look at what apocrypha has to say
about the battle breakdown and explore the battle of Wolf 359 and those present to oppose Cube 632.
The fleet was assembled in advance at Wolf 359 under the command of Admiral Hansen who
was taking the lead on this operation from the bridge of the only Galaxy Class starship
in the fleet which we never learn the name of, but after narrowing it down,
I’m gonna assume it's the USS Liberator NCC-67016. The Admiral reached out to the fleet and had them
deploy into formation Delta 3, which consisted of three lines of ships that could hit in waves
and present enough of an obstacle to force the Borg cube to slow its approach. The formation had
the heavy cruisers at the centre while the edges were made of the smaller frigates and more nimble
ships. Here they waited, in line, bracing for the incoming vessel which then opened its hail and
demanded Starfleet power down, disarm and escort the cube to Earth for assimilation to begin.
The frontline of twelve ships was ordered to accelerate in and begin attacking the cube
and the opened fire with a bombardment of photon torpedoes and phaser blasts,
each calibrated to a different frequency in order to overcome the Borg’s shielding,
however this did not work as presumably, these frequencies were expected by Picard
and the Borg had preemptively adapted to them. As the ships began to break and turn away,
to allow the second line to unleash their firepower, the Borg returned fire and destroyed
the USS Melbourne, crippled the USS Saratoga and another two vessels from the initial wave.
The second line opened fire, but immediately was tasked with providing covering fire so that the
limping damaged vessels could retreat back to the rear and repair, but all this served to do
was draw fire from the Borg cube which immediately began targeting the second line while continuing
to cripple the first. Among the next wave of ships to lose were the USS Bonestell and the
Firebrand while the cube closed in. The second line was then forced to part with the Yamaguchi
disengaging to port, while the cube switched to make a hole in the line by destroying the Kyushu,
Princeton and the McKinley. By this point, only 2 minutes and 30 seconds had passed and already
around a dozen ships were lost or drifting. This had kicked up a debris field in the firing
line of the third line, and generally made an issue of focusing fire as space was now littered
with the hulks of destroyed ships, escape pods and emergency shuttles with survivors aboard.
Starfleet was not going to fire indiscriminately into this field and risk killing survivors,
but the Borg had no compunctions about doing that, even if they did probably sneak in a few
transporter beams to grab people from their unprotected escape pods for assimilation.
Additionally, the Borg would use the debris field to their advantage and use their advanced tractor
beams to steer approaching ships into the wrecks to destroy more ships. On top of this, Borg drones
were being beamed aboard Starfleet vessels if their shields were lacking in an attempt to occupy
a crew from mounting a defence or recovering. At four minutes in, Admiral Hansen ordered a
retreat and regroup of the third line and surviving ships with a staggered pattern
to allow for the ships to continue firing back at the cube and cover each other as they pulled out.
There were only 16 vessels left, 3 of which were heavily damaged and now Starfleet was retreating
as the cube pushed through, ever closer to Earth. The Yamaguchi and Arwahnee were destroyed at this
point and Admiral Hansen reached out the the USS Enterprise with a set of coordinates to
regroup at, but he was cut off as presumably the USS Liberator was lost, with Hansen onboard.
At this point, the Cube simply picked off those ships that were in the way until the Nebula class
USS Endeavour under the command of Captain Amasov was the only vessel left, the 39 other ships all
destroyed. The captain would chalk his ship’s survival to dumb luck, although half the crew was
still lost. The Enterprise D would pass through the remnants of the Wolf 359 fleet minutes later,
expecting to join the battle to find it already over and, 11,000 souls lost.
Additionally, a single civilian ship was apparently caught in the retreating fleet and
was also destroyed and the total battle had lasted only 6 minutes. A State of Emergency was declared
on Earth and Enterprise set off in pursuit, fortunately able to rescue Picard and save the
Federation, but the cost was incredibly high. It was of course this battle that accelerated
Starfleet’s modernisation of its armada, considering Oberth and miranda class ships
were deployed into combat alongside only 1 Galaxy class and about three Nebula, however
it’s worth noting that next time the Federation engaged a Borg cube, they did so by swarming it,
and kept moving, no defensive lines, no holding ground and trying to halt them,
just harrying them as they went without letting up and this worked far better, although even that
Borg Cube made it all the way to Sector 001. So what could have Starfleet done differently,
well, unfortunately I don’t think they could have done much with the timeframe they had,
once the Borg had Picard’s mind and his intimate knowledge of the Federation’s play, the Borg had
an unfair and complete advantage that was only bolstered by their radically advanced technology.
Maybe not playing so defensively may have prolonged the battle, but as the next encounter
and future encounters with the Borg will reveal, the only real way to defeat them is to play dirty,
turn their tech against them, infiltrate their systems and exploit their weaknesses.
In a military confrontation, the Borg will win hands down every time unless Starfleet
shares the insight and knowledge the Borg can bring against their opponents. Borg ships are
just too overwhelmingly powerful. Overall the battle of Wolf 359,
I believe was unwinnable from the outset, and recognition of this, is what led Starfleet to
undergo such a drastic change in ship design and operation in the next few years. It ended
the golden age of exploration they had been experiencing but allowed them to weather
the next decade of turmoil though at great cost. Thanks for watching this breakdown of the battle
of Wolf 359, apologies for the delay in videos, I dunno if you can hear it in my voice but I have
been all flu’d up for a while now but needed to get this out there. Thanks again for watching,
I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you next time for another video, goodbye!