^ Exactly right, as I have already described.
I haven't researched it recently, but I believe at least one German Wunderwaffen was a small (antiaircraft?) rocket powered directly by that H2O2 decomposition, as was the Hughes rocket
This, as opposed to the rocket engines powered by hypergolic fuels.
If I recall correctly, the V-2's engine didn't have to withstand thousands of degrees in that sense. While the Verein fur Raumshiffarht (VfR, "Society for Space Travel") was originally experimenting with liquid fuel engines in the 1930s, somebody discovered that injecting a little bit of fuel (alcohol and water) in perforated rings high up in the combustion chamber would allow it to travel along the inside surface of the engine, keeping the actual metal relatively cool, especially at the nozzle throat, which was what usually burned through.
Again, IIRC, this was the main reason they used alcohol since it would mix with water (apart from the fact that gasoline was being used by the Luftwaffe.)
Willy Ley's "Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel" was my original and authoritative source for these matters. That book disappeared when we moved to Colorado. He also commented in one of his works that most of the exhaust flame of the V-2 was due to this extra fuel burning when it exited the engine.
Werner von Braun was a prominent member of the VfR.
Terry, 230RN
edited to insert "allow it to"