[en] The research reported here is an investigation of the influence of the mechanically induced martensitic transformation on the fatigue crack growth rate in 304-type steels. The alloys 304L and 304LN were used to test the influence of composition, the testing temperatures 298 K and 77 K were used to study the influence of test temperature, and various load ratios (R) were used to determine the influence of the load ratio. It was found that decreasing the mechanical stability of the austenite by changing composition or lowering temperature decreases the fatigue crack growth rate. The R-ratio effect is more subtle. The fatigue crack growth rate increases with increasing R-ratio, even though this change increases the martensite transformation. Transformation-induced crack closure can explain the results in the threshold regime, but cannot explain the R-ratio effect at higher cyclic stress intensities. 26 refs., 6 figs