If that's literally how you typed it, that's your problem.
Try: "javac -d ../WEB-INF/classes *.java
If your directories are:
Then
you should get the proper results. I prefer the forward slashes even under Windows, but your actual problem was in not leaving a space after the destination directory name (plus having a questionable destination path syntax).
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.