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 ''
Arab general strike
Arab general strike (Mandatory Palestine)
Dick Raikes