Over the past two decades, the use of fracture mechanics has become common practice to characterize the onset and growth of delaminations. In order to predict delamination propagation, the calculated strain energy release rate components are compared to interlaminar fracture toughness properties measured over a range from pure mode I loading to pure mode II loading. The development of benchmark examples for the assessment of quasistatic delamination propagation capabilities is discussed and the application demonstrated for finite element models of simple fracture toughness test specimens. It is shown that the benchmarking method described can highlight the issues associated with choosing the appropriate input parameters for any finite element code and thus serve as a valuable tool for developers, students and experts alike.