Order of class loading from a .war file

The selected answer is wrong. Servlet spec version 2.4 and 3.0 clearly states that WEB-INF/classes are loaded first and then WEB-INF/lib

Servlet 2.4: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/jcp/servlet-2.4-fr-spec-oth-JSpec/servlet-2_4-fr-spec.pdf - section SRV.9.5, last paragraph

Servlet 3.0: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/jcp/servlet-3.0-fr-oth-JSpec/servlet-3_0-final-spec.pdf - section 10.5, last paragraph

The Web application class loader must load classes from the WEB-INF/classes directory first, and then from library JARs in the WEB-INF/lib directory.

This answer was incorrect but cannot be deleted because it is the accepted answer. See @Sajeev's answer below.