The date reporting the first use of true rockets was in 1232. At this time, the Chinese and the Mongols were at war with each other. During the battle of Kai-Ke

The date reporting the first use of true rockets was in 1232. At this time, the Chinese and the Mongols were at war with each other. During the battle of Kai-Keng, the Chinese repelled the Mongol invaders by a barrage of "arrows of flying fire." These fire-arrows were a simple form of a solid-propellant rocket. https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/TRC/Rockets/history_of_rockets.html https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/TRC/Rockets/history_of_roc... But to your point the turbopump was a key contribution of the Nazis: In mid-1935 Wernher von Braun initiated a fuel pump project at the southwest German firm Klein, Schanzlin & Becker that was experienced in building large fire-fighting pumps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbopump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbopump