I can't argue with much of that, Nickhere. You are right that the Germans produced many very advanced weapons.

The thing about Polish cavalry charging German tanks, however, is probably apocryphal. It may never have happened. Here are some interesting bits of info about the Polish campaign.

1. Both sides fielded cavalry. The Germans also had cavalry units, and they used them with much good result for both reconaissance and combat, continuing to use them even much later in the Russian campaign. (And the Russians also fielded many cavalry units in WWII, again with good result. One did not use them to fight tanks, needless to say, but for many other purposes of scouting and combat.)

2. It is doubtful that any Polish cavalry ever charged German tanks, although it's become a popular story.

3. People don't seem to realize that the Poles also had tanks of their own...just not enough of them. They had some light tanks, I forget the name, small tanks with machine guns...and they had a very good medium tank of the time with a high velocity 37mm gun called the 7TP. It was just as capable as the various German medium tanks it faced in combat.

4. The main thing that caused the Polish army to be massacred was the intense ground attacks launched by the Luftwaffe. Stukas in particular pounced on every transportation chokepoint and concentration of Polish troops they could find on the roads and elsewhere, and they wreaked utter havoc on them. The Poles did not have a large enough air force to be able to do much of anything about it. Most of the fighter planes they had were being held back to defend the Warsaw area, and they fought bravely, but were outnumbered and soon decimated.

It's true that the Germans had the Poles outclassed in equipment...but the cliche of cavalry charging tanks in no way conveys the reality of the situation. The Poles were not unfamiliar with the use of modern equipment in '39, and with a considerably larger airforce at their command they would have been much better able to meet the Germans on relatively even terms.

In WWII once you had command of the air you were unbeatable on the battlefield. The Germans established air superiority from the outset of that campaign. Only over Warsaw were the Poles able for a short while to offer fairly significant resistance in the air.