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In this contribution several examples for fatigue crack growth inmachines and components will be shown. The reason for failures e.g. can be found inmisconstructions, inappropriate fatigue strength calculations as well as material andmanufacturing imperfections. Fatigue crack growth as consequence of service loadsdepends on many different contributing factors. The magnitude and chronologicalsequence of the loading as well as its type and direction and such the normal and shearstress distribution in a structure have major influence. Not only the crack velocity(crack growth rate) but also the crack configuration (crack path) can be determined bymeans of fracture mechanics. With the help of numerical simulations fatigue crackgrowth in three-dimensional structures can either be predicted or at least be explainedfor already existing failures.