raikes entered dartmouth aged thirteen in 1925; he became chief cadet captain and was awarded the king’s dirk. he served in the battleship hms "warspite" as a midshipman when she was based in malta. whilst there he used to rise at dawn to exercise lord louis mountbatten's ponies. he was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 16 january 1933 but in the same year the ‘bullshit’ of the gunnery course at hms "excellent" on whale island made him determined to only serve in small ships without guns. he attended submarine training at hms "dolphin" in gosport later that year and served in hms "l22", hms "clyde", hms "h32" and hms "severn" before the war. he was promoted to lieutenant on 16 march 1935 and was present the same year at the fleet review for king george v's silver jubilee off spithead whilst serving in the newly built river-class submarine hms "clyde". "clyde" sailed to the mediterranean and was present in palestine during the arab general strike. during this time raikes, after a couple of hours shunting practice at haifa station, was in command of an armoured train, keeping the line to samakh open despite ambushes and derailments. on one night he joined the trans-jordan frontier force and rode his horse at full gallop across the country by the light of a burning oil pipeline. he returned to malta and became first lieutenant of the submarine hms "severn".