Tupolev SB & Avia B-71 in service with Poland and Slovakia.

 

The Tupolev SB was a high-speed, twin-engined three-seat Soviet monoplane bomber which flew for the first time in 1934. It was also built under license in Czechoslovakia under the denomination of Avia B-71. It was mainly used by the USSR, but there were some foreign users as well, among them, the following ones:

• Poland: During World War 2 some Polish pilots in the USSR were trained with the Tupolev USB (the dual-control trainer variant). These pilots belonged to the 9th Group stationed at Buguruslan, in Chkalov oblast (nowadays Orenburg oblast). Just after the war, five USB trainers were delivered to the Aviation Officers School at Deblin, in the Lublin Voivodeship, to serve as trainers. In 1947 they were re-engined with M-105 engines. This change required a redesign of the exhaust collector system, while different propellers with more ogival spinners were also installed. Three of the five USB served with the Wojska Lotnicze (Polish Air Force)  at the Aviation Officers School until August 1949. This marked the longest use of the Tupolev USB outside the USSR, than any other country.
  
  
• Slovakia: When Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the state was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the independent Slovak Republic. The Slovenské vzdusné zbrane ( SVZ - Slovak Air Force) had a total of 300 aircraft, among them three Avia B-71. 
  Just before the annexation, one B-71 had to perform a forced landing in the Slovakian part of Czechoslovakia, where it remained well after the split. Hungarian troops occupied the Carpatho-Ukraine region (Ruthenia) and looked to expand their borders in southern Slovakia. This soon led to various clashes which eventually escalated into the Slovak-Hungarian War of late March 1939 in the context of which, on 24th March ten Magyar Királyi Honvéd Legiero (MKHL - Royal Hungarian Air Force) Junkers Ju.86K-2 bombers attacked the airfield of Spisská Nová Ves, in the Kosicé region. This raid damaged one B-71 stationed there.
  The B-71 that force landed in Slovakia before the German occupation, was repaired during the spring of 1939 and received SVZ codes and the blue V3 registration. It was also fitted with German radio equipment, a direction finding loop antenna and an antenna mast mounted on the upper fuselage behind the cockpit. Two additional rack antennas were also fitted to the lower rear fuselage with the original retractable antenna being retained. Both balance weights were also removed from the lower right wing.
  On 18th April 1943 five Slovak airmen scaped to neutral Turkey in the blue V3 B-71. Sergeant Anton Vanko took off from Trencianske Biskupice airbase, close to the town of Trencin, in western Slovakia. Aboard the B-71 were Privates First Class J.Koman, J. Bzoch, L.Slezak and L.Pollak. The B-71 flew from Trencianske Biskupice to Kestanelik, in the Çanakkale province of Turkey, where they were interned for a brief period of time. The five Slovak airmen then travelled to England via North Africa, where they joined the various Czechoslovak Royal Air Force's (RAF) squadrons. Vanko became a Supermarine Spitfire pilot at the No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron at RAF Bradwell Bay, in Essex. Unfortunately he was killed in a take off accident on 8th December 1944.

Sources:

1st Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 194 - Tupolev SB in Action

2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_SB
3rd https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/sb/tapani/b-71/czech%2Bslovak/czech%2Bslovak.htm