2nd Highland Light Infantry, late 1943 onwards

Just wondered if anyone might have any detailed info on the 2nd Bn, HLI, following its conversion to a Mountaineer Battalion in late 1943?

From what I can tell, it might have been unique in this role for the British Army during WW2, though possibly the Lovat Scouts were employed in a similar fashion.

Anyway, from what I can gather, 2 HLI were organised as a Beach Brick Battalion for the Sicily landings, then sent to the Mid East to train as mountaineers, which required them to adopt a very unusual unit organisation (which gets my interest!). They were slated for deployment to Italy, but not wanted, so ended up as part of the Vis Brigade. They took part in low scale raiding activities along with the Commandos based on Vis, then were sent to Greece and back to Italy for the war's end.

They seem to have had a very interesting history, but little recorded.

I didn't want to go to the expense of trying to obtain copies of the war diaries, and was just hoping someone might have some additional info on the Bn.

Thanks,

Gary