Maven Cannot find the file specified - but it exists (briefly then it deletes the file it cant find)

I have been thrown in the deep end as far is Java is concerned and need to compile a project against the latest version of Websphere to see if it's still compatible.  When I run the second step in the Maven build to build to WebSphere I get a file not found error (even though the file exists) and then Maven promptly deletes the file it couldn't find (to destroy my sanity I'm sure).  Here is the tail end of the log

    [echo] Going to Precompile JSP
    [delete] Deleting 672 files from C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp2
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0.ear
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-common-1.0.0.jar
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-common-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-intimations-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-masterdata-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-messaging-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-orders-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-reports-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-soap-web-1.0.0.war
    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-web-1.0.0.war
    [echo] Repack
mmfeconfig:repack:
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-common-1.0.0.jar
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-common-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-intimations-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-masterdata-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-messaging-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-orders-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-reports-ejb-1.0.0.jar
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-soap-web-1.0.0.war
    [zip] Building zip: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-web-1.0.0.war
mmfeconfig:generateRMIC:
was5:ejbDeploy:
    [delete] Deleting directory C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\was5
    [mkdir] Created dir: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\was5
    [echo] Generating EJB code for: 'C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE/target/temp/mmfe-1.0.0/safe-common-ejb-1.0.0.jar' to 'C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE/targ
et/temp/was5/safe-common-ejb-1.0.0.jar'
    [exec] The system cannot find the path specified.

    [delete] Deleting: C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\mmfe-1.0.0\safe-common-ejb-1.0.0.jar

BUILD FAILED
File...... C:\Documents and Settings\richardw\.maven\cache\mmfe-configurator-plugin-1.0\plugin.jelly
Element... copy
Line...... 196
Column.... 48
Warning: Could not find file C:\Java\WebSphereWS\MMFE\target\temp\was5\safe-common-ejb-1.0.0.jar to copy.
Total time: 17 seconds
Finished at: Wed Jul 16 19:55:24 GMT+02:00 2008


Looks to me like the forward and back slash combination in the file name is causing the issue - question is why is Maven doing this and how do I get it to stop (or maybe I am barking up the wrong tree or something).