Epitaxial layers of GaAs grown from the liquid phase have been studied by transmission electron microscopy. The layers were grown on mechanically polished substrates and contain intrinsic stacking faults bounded by Shockley partial dislocations. Near each end of most of these grown‐in faults, there are three overlapping intrinsic faults. The two faults which overlap the grown‐in fault form by vacancy migration during growth and are bounded by Frank partials. Unfaulting of these three‐layer defects was observed on annealing and is accomplished by the nucleation and motion of Shockley partials. These unfaulting Shockley partials have been observed for the first time. The final state is one in which the total faulted structure is eliminated.