Bombings during World War II
During 1938 Wuhan was the defacto capital of China while it fought the Anti-Japanese War. When the city fell to the Japanese it subsequently became a strategic base for the Japanese. As a result over the course of just a few years Wuhan suffered bombings from the Japanese in their attempt to take the city and bombings from the US during Operation Matterhorn as the US fought the Japanese.
As Germans fled Wuhan during the Anti-Japanese War they attached a Nazi flag to the top of the train car in order to protect them from Japanese bombing campaigns. The importance of the railroad to Hankou's history can be read about here.
US Operation Matterhorn involved a series of strategic bombings of Japanese forces and holdings and Japan itself. The B-29s had a limited range so the US established several bases in India and China and launched the flights from there. The map below provides a visualization of this operation. Wuhan is at the center of several ranges.
