Although raised on a farm in southwest Arkansas during the Great Depression, Doy Duncan, like many young boys of that time, dreamed of flying. Through hard work and perseverance, Duncan went to college, where he took primary Civilian Pilot Training. He then joined the U.S. Navy and completed secondary CPT in Conway, Arkansas, while waiting to be called to active duty. In November of 1942 he reported to the Naval Preflight School at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. After months of training, Doy Duncan was assigned to the USS Kadashan Bay, CVE-76, to fly the FM-2 Wildcat fighter plane. He saw his first combat in September 1944 as he flew support for the First Marine Division's invasion of the Palau Islands in the Pacific. He would be shot down a month later in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Abandoned at Leyte is Duncan's story of courage and survival as a World War II Wildcat pilot.

"Sunken Ships of World War II" is truly one of the greatest compendiums of naval history that has ever been put together. Not only does it give an exhaustive chronology of events and actions of the United States Navy, it also contains listings of the Allies (American and English) and of the Axis (Japanese, German and Italian) naval losses wherever they took place. Each of the pages of this book is packed with minute information on each sunken vessel. Entries also include the most available information on the commanders, crews, size, displacement and location in degrees of each vessel, the battles, the forces, and just about any other particular information of interest on each vessel. By any measurement, "Sunken Ships of World War II" stands alone for its depth and breath of the information revealed in its detailed pages.