Initiation of quasicleavage (QC) cracks in delayed fracture of hydrogen charged, quenched and tempered AISI 4340 steel was studied by means of a fractographic technique. The fatal crack leading to the delayed fracture of an unnotched specimen is found not to be caused by intergranular cracking as is commonly found in notched specimens, but by QC cracking. An SEM fractographic examination has revealed that QC cracks, which initiate around non-metallic inclusions and under the effect of hydrogen alone, grow mainly along the rolling direction of the specimen. Furthermore, the tensile component of stress causes a QC crack to grow in the plane of maximum tensile stress. The condition under which brittle fracture finally occurs in delayed fracture can be evaluated by the classical Griffith criterion from two parameters: the QC crack length and the nominal applied stress.MST/3264