Special to The New York Times.

HAVANA, April 12--The failure of a revolutionary strike has shaken Cuba's rebels.

In Havana the strike against President Fulgencio Batista's Government failed to develop because of the swift response of the armed forces and the lack of coordination among revolutionary groups.

Rumors continued here today that Fidel Castro, rebel leader, had not issued a strike call.  These reports said an attack by a group of youths on a navy arsenal in Havana touched off intense firing and the abortive strike attempt.

"No strike was ever called," one rebel said today.  noting that the only announcement of the strike was made by two groups of youths who forced the CMQ and Progreso radio stations to broadcast a strike call, he said:

"This was an error because they had never received the official notice."

Faustino Perez, right-hand man of Senor Castro, was said to have seen assigned to coordinate the strike.  Reports tonight said he was hiding in Havana.

[The rebel high command in Havana has branded Senor Perez a traitor, The Associated Press reported.  The command charged Senor Perez had bungled Wednesday's call to arms in the capital and threatened to kill him.]

Rebel supporters in the city were thrown into confusion by the radio announcements because they were not the strike call that had previously been agreed upon.

Whatever may have occurred, the Wednesday outbreak, demonstrated that Havana's strong garrison of soldiers, policemen and sailors were on the alert for any rebel move.

In the interior, many small towns were paralyzed and considerable sabotage by rebels occurred.  Twenty-five rebels were reported to have been killed in Sagua la Grande in a two-day attack on the town.  At the United States-owned MacFarlane Foundry there, two auxiliary electric plants were destroyed.  The railway station was burned by the rebels.

A rebel band also attacked the near-by town of Quemado de Guines.  The rebels fighting in this area were said to  be part of a band of 200 members  of the Revolutionary Directorate who are fighting in the hills of Santa Clara Province particularly near Trinidad.  This organization is composed of followers of former President Carlos Prio Socarras, who is living in exile in Miami.

Fighting also continued in many places in Oriente Province, the center of the revolutionary activity against the Government.  An army communiqué said nineteen reels had been killed in various skirmishes yesterday.

There seems to be little doubt that although the rebels have been shaken by the events of recent days they will continue to fight against the Batista regime.

Meanwhile, Manuel Jose Norman, a British subject born in England, is being held by Havana police on suspicion of being a member of Senor Castro's revolutionary movement.

Mr. Norman's father, Josie Norman, is a former concert pianist who now is a coffee planter in Cuba's Oriente Province.  On this mother's side, young Norman is a great-grandson of the Cuban patriot, Calixto Garcia, who was the recipient of the famous "Message to Garcia" sent to him during the Spanish-American War.

HAVANA, April 12 (AP)--The rebel high command in Havana said 5,000 fighters had been ready to stream into the capital's streets Wednesday but Senor Perez never gave the word.  The strike fizzled when the Batista regime poured heavily armed policemen into the city's trouble spots.

The attack on Senor Perez came on the heels of an outburst of Senor Castro against the Junta of Liberation led by former President Prio Socarras and Jose Aleman, a Cuban millionaire.  In a statement last Wednesday, the rebel leader charged that while both men were living in luxury in Florida, his forces were without arms.  Senor Castro has admitted that he is fast  running out of arms and ammunition.  The Government's well equipped and well trained forces have inflicted heavy casualties on rebel striking units.

Sagua la Grande was reported calm tonight after fifty-six hours of sporadic skirmishing.  During the action there a Cuban gunboat landed marines at La Isabella, ten miles north of Sagua la Grande, touching off erroneous reports that a rebel forces had disembarked.

HAVANA, April 12 (UP)--Cuban Government troops started an offensive today in Oriente Province to drive Senor Castro's columns back into their Sierra Maestra stronghold.

A Government spokesman said that fresh troops thrown into the Oriente offensive were trained regulars and not recruits.  He said the reinforcements had been released from guard duty in the Oriente area, where rebel forces have been attempting to destroy the sugar crop.

The spokesman said the army "soon" would have 10,000 troops in the drive against the rebel forces in Oriente.  He predicted that the army would "wipe out" the rebels "within forty-five days."