Türk tarihinin en önemli dönemi şüphesiz Balkan Harbi (1912) ile başlayıp Milli Mücadele (1922) ile nihayete ermiş on yıllık muharebeler silsilesidir. Bu süreçten en çok etkilenenler ise muharebelere katılmış binlere asker ve onların yakınlarıdır. Bu askerlerden biri de 1308 [1892] doğumlu Hasan Remzi (Fertan) Bey’dir. Onun, “Hayatımdan Parçalar: Çocuklarıma” şeklinde isimlendirdiği, çalışmamızın da konusu olan hatıratı bu hazîn yıllarının bir gazinin kaleminden özetidir. Balkan Harbi başladığında Hasan Remzi Bey, Harbiye’de öğrencidir. Çatalca’dan gelen top seslerini duyduğunda cepheye koşma arzusundadır. “Neticede bütün Rumeli elden gitti. Yüz binlerce Türk ve İslam boğazlandı, iffetler payimal oldu. Türk namusu lekelendi. Türk askerinin şecaat ve şehameti idaresiz ellerde bir müddet için söndü.” sözleri hatıratının mahiyeti hakkında bize fikir verir. Balkan Harbi’ni Harbiye Mektebi’nde öğrenci iken gören Hasan Remzi Bey, Çanakkale Cephesi dâhil Birinci Dünya Harbi’nin nerede ise bütün cephelerine katılmıştır. İngilizlerin Çanakkale’den tahliyesini görmüş buradan Temmuz 1916’da Kafkas Cephesi’ne gönderilmiştir. Rus birliklerinin Şubat 1917 devrimi ile birlikte Anadolu’dan çekilmesi sonrası Filistin Cephesi’ne intikal etmiş, Filistin’den Türk orduları ricat ederken kendisi de İngilizlere esir düşmüştür. Esaret hayatı, İstanbul’a dönüşü, Anadolu’ya geçişi ve Milli Mücadele yılları onun hatıralarının ana hatlarını teşkil etmektedir.

The most important time period of Turkish history is, without doubt, the chain of wars and battles starting from the Balkan War and ending with the Turkish War of Independence. Exluding the Battle of Gallipoli, this process had deep effects on both the soldiers and on the country itself. The people most affected from this process were the thousands of soldiers who saw action in these battles and their families. One of these soldiers was Hasan Remzi Bey born in 1308 [1892]. His memoirs entitled by himself as "Pieces from my Life: to my Children" was also a summary of the history of the wars that lasted a decade starting from the Battle of Gallipoli and ending with the Turkish War of Independence. When the Balkan War began, Hasan Remzi Bey was still a student in the Turkish Military Academy of Harbiye. When the enemy forces advanced towards the Turkish capital and when the sound of artillery coming from the Çatalca defensive lines could be heard from Istanbul, he was eager to rush to battle as, according to his own expressions, the entire Rumelia was lost, hundreds of thousands of Turks and Muslims were massacred, many were subject to rape, Turkish honor was stained and both the courage and the fighting power of Turkish soldiers were rendered ineffective under the command of incapable administrators. Hasan Remzi Bey, who witnessed the Balkan War, also served in almost all of the Turkish theaters of World War I including the Battle of Gallipoli. He witnessed the British withdrawal from Gallipoli and he was later sent to serve in the 2th Army fighting in the Caucasian Front in July 1916. Following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Eastern Frontier as a result of the February Revolution, he was transferred to the Palestinian Front where he would be captured as a Prisoner of War by the British forces during the retreat of the Turkish armies from Palestine. His life of captivity, arrival in Istanbul and crossing over to Anatolia to fight in the Turkish War of Independence would form the outlines of his memoirs.