DB-3 'red 12' was captured by Finns in Winter war.

This aircraft was shot down on January 29th, 1940 over Hauho, Finland, by FAF Fokker D.XXI FR-106 (piloted by J.Visapaa, who was a test pilot and he was testing a repaired Fokker D.XXI over the Aircraft factory in Tampere).

Red 12 landed suffering limited damage. Crewmembers Yandushev Grigoriy, Kurbatov Grigoriy, Zuyev Nikolai survived and were taken prisoners.

After repairs red '12' became VP-13 in Finnish AF.

Finns captured five DB-3s in repairable conditions during the Winter War; they were repaired in the depot on Tampere and put in Finnish service at first with serials from VP-11 to VP-15 (DB-11 to DB-15 after September 1941).

Six further DB-3s were bought from German war booty; when they arrived in Finland on 12 September 1941, they were marked DB-16 to DB-21.

left: Red 11, another DB-3 captured is good conditions by Finns, is loaded on a truck. Red stars are roughly covered, perhaps by snow. The layout of the windows on the side of the nose looks different than the one of red 12 /VP-13.

It is likely that the plane 'red 12' wore Finnish marks on the original Soviet Aluminium finish as it was for n.11 (in this photo) and n. 15, but there are not photos available to confirm this. As we see, the Soviet marks (including the n.11 on the rudder) were overpained with silver paint.

Three photos of VP-13, possibly taken in Reichlin base for some recognition manual. The plane has the Finnish camo, but rough red stars have been added on the photos. Despite this alteration, they allow to see well the camo pattern from above.

The machine guns have been removed, as it was the upper nose hatch doors in the second and third photo. It seems that the spinners have their front of different colors, possibly white (left one) and blue (right one).

Images from Luftwaffe Journal, issue 7

This image is probably dated at the beginning of 1942. After the total yellow repainting operated by Germans, the undersurfaces have been repainted with Finnish light blue, with yellow wingtips and band on the fuselage. The new code DB-13 has replaced the old VP-13 in September 1941; it was painted in black over green and yellow surfaces, and in green over yellow surfaces. Spinners are black. It has a new Finnish-built sliding door to cover the access under the nose. There is no any MG in the front turret. The doors of the rear fuselage ventral hatch have been removed.

Note how dark the yellow band on the fuselage appears in this photo; this allows us to exclude that the engine and nose undersurfaces were painted yellow.

A color photo taken in 1942. The details of the nose are well visible here.

A large hand grip has been installed over the nose; another device, similar to an hand grip but ending with a trumpet-shaped open end (a large Venturi?) , was added on its right side.

The new sliding door installed by Finns is in opened position; it seems to see a large circular lens of a reconaissance camera just inside.

Here is DB-13 in July 1944, with an aerial mast added on its nose.

A flower ace is painted on both sides of the nose.

The swastikas already have a grey background, but the yellow axis recognition bands are still there.

Note that some black has added on the right engine cowling to reduce the visibility from above.

Here is DB-13 in October 1944; the yellow identification bands were deleted after the armistice with the Soviet Union and the combats against the German forces; note that the swastika disk is grey,and in the photo appears undistinguishable from the light blue of the undersurfaces. The spinner was repainted black-white-red

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