More than one million National Revolutionary Army troops from the Fifth and Ninth War Zone were put under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek, defending Wuhan from the Central China Area Army of the Imperial Japanese Army led by Shunroku Hata. Chinese forces were also supported by the Soviet Volunteer Group, a group of volunteer pilots from Soviet Air Forces. Although the battle ended with the eventual capture of Wuhan by the Japanese forces, it resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, as high as 1.2 million combined by some estimates. With the Japanese suffering their heaviest losses of the war, they decided to divert their attention to the north, which prolonged the war until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The end of the battle signaled the beginning of a strategic stalemate in the war, shifting from large pitched battles to localised struggles

The Japanese advance toward Wuhan was slowed by a monumental decision on the part of Chiang Kai-shek. Under pressure from his advisors, he ordered the dams on the Yangtze River to be demolished in order to flood the area and slow down the Japanese advance, which it did. It also cost about 800,000 Chinese lives due to drowning, famine from the loss of crops, and disease. After the Battle of Wuhan, which officially ended on October 27th with the capture of Hanyang, the lines of the war remained largely the same until late 1944/45, and even at the time of the Japanese surrender, they controlled much of China.