Yep. They even sent the gun line into start bombardments. They had BB, CA, & CL shelling Japanese shore installations.Wasn't the USN pushing for a fake landing, with the landing ships full of rockets, as another way of thinning out the kamikazes?
Japanese wouldn't bite. Frustrated the hell out of Halsey.
The Japanese had made the entirely correct decision that the only way to stop the invasion was to kill the troops before they disembarked. Troop ships were going to be the kamikaze targets, while what was left of the JNAF strike squadrons was slated to go after the carriers at the same time. The idea was to wait for about two days, when the American pilots and deck crews would be tired, and the gunners exhausted from days of constant alert, then hit the invasion force with anything that flew, including about 5,000 suicide planes, in waves of around 400 aircraft per hour on the first day of strikes, before the troops disembarked. The carriers would be distracted with a series of massive strikes by both kamikazes, and much more importantly, what was left of the JNAF (mostly hard core veterans who had survived the Pacific War and instructors) flying conventional strike profiles, around 550 strike aircraft were available.