The Climate of Courage

The Climate of Courage is a 1954 novel by Australian writer Jon Cleary. It was his fifth published novel. It is set during World War II and involves a group of Australian soldiers who have returned from service in the Middle East. 
Premise.
The novel falls into two parts: the soldiers on leave in Sydney, where they engage in various romantic entanglements and experience the famous submarine attack on Sydney, then taking part in a patrol during the New Guinea Campaign. 
Background.
The book was based on Cleary's experiences in the army during World War Two, where he served in the Middle East and New Guinea. He said it took him ten years to write the book. He admitted that he made some alternations to make the book more appealing to international audiences, as he felt it was more difficult for them to understand Australian culture:
It means, for one thing, using dialogue that is more universal than the parochial slang your characters would naturally use, or, when you do use slang (and an Australian writer has to, because Australians use so much slang in their everyday conversation), you have to make its meaning self evident. Again, an Australian writer has little opportunity for satire because the satire would be lost on the reader who didn’t know the background. He has to take chances on his humour (because the Australian sense of humour is more sardonic—you might even say more cruel—than is general elsewhere in the world). And when a writer has pride in his country, as I have, he must see that that pride is expressed in a way that won’t offend the pride of a reader in another country.
Reception.
The book was very popular, selling 28,000 copies in the UK during its first week of publication.
Reviews were strong in London.
Adaptation.
The novel was adapted for Australian radio in 1956 with a cast that included John Meillon.