The Battle of Wuhan, popularly known to the Chinese as the Defence of Wuhan, and to the Japanese as the Capture of Wuhan, was a large-scale battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. More than one million National Revolutionary Army troops were gathered, with Chiang Kai-shek himself in command, to defend Wuhan from the Imperial Japanese Army led by Yasuji Okamura.

Engagements were in both northern and southern shores of Yangtze River, spreading across vast areas of Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces. It lasted four and half months, and was the longest, largest and one of the most significant battles of the entire Second Sino-Japanese War.

On 7 July 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army launched the full-scale invasion against China. With the onset of the war, Beijing and Tianjin fell to the Japanese in less than one month, which exposed the entire North China Plain to the Japanese Army. On 12 November, the Japanese Army captured Shanghai. Nanjing was at risk of being besieged, and the Chinese government was forced to transfer its capital to Chongqing.

Wuhan (simplified Chinese: 武汉; traditional Chinese: 武漢; pinyin: Wǔhàn [wùxân] ( listen)) is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers. Arising out of the conglomeration of three districts, Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, Wuhan is known as "the nine provinces' leading thoroughfare"; it is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through the city. Because of its key role in domestic transportation, Wuhan was sometimes referred to as the "Chicago of China." It is recognized as the political, economic, financial, cultural, educational and transportation center of central China. The city of Wuhan, first termed as such in 1927, has a population of 10,020,000 people (Census 2011), with about 6,434,373 residents in its urban area. In the 1920s, Wuhan was the national capital of a leftist Kuomintang (KMT) government led by Wang Jingwei in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek, as well as wartime capital in 1937.