For the analysis of the critical inter fibre cracking behaviour of cross-ply carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) at very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) loading, specific test principals and a shaker based bending fatigue test stand have been developed. With the help of the presented test stand the experimental characterisation of inter fibre cracking of CFRP under fully reversed fatigue is performed. Multiple cracking events on the specimen surface were recorded by light microscopy and statistically analysed. The homogeneous stress/strain distribution at the specimen surface facilitates the determination of SN curves as each occurring crack is considered to be one failed separated specimen. It is therefore convenient to analyse the local stress/strain distributions between adjacent cracks by finite fracture mechanics. Two different models are used to describe the tensile and bending fatigue experiments, respectively. Furthermore, a comprehensive fatigue model based on the calculation of the mechanical energy release rate in the off-axis plies is derived, which is capable of describing and predicting the inter fibre failure observed in the bending experiments. Based on the evaluation of the bending fatigue tests, the model also predicts the cracking events of the tensile fatigue tests in a suitable way. The first experimental results and modelling approaches are presented and discussed in this paper proving the suitability of the chosen models to describe the fatigue behaviour and material degradation throughout the experiment.