diff --git a/war/plugin.jelly b/war/plugin.jelly
index 3d2e879c..a2580658 100644
--- a/war/plugin.jelly
+++ b/war/plugin.jelly
@@ -312,9 +312,12 @@
   <!-- In-place deployment of the web application                       -->
   <!--==================================================================-->  
   <goal name="war:inplace"
+    prereqs="war:init"
     description="Deploy a webapp into maven.war.src - in particular setting up WEB-INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes">
     <j:set var="maven.war.webapp.dir" value="${maven.war.src}"/>
-    <attainGoal name="war:webapp"/>
+    <j:if test="${webSourcesPresent == 'true'}">
+      <attainGoal name="war:webapp"/>
+    </j:if>
   </goal> 
 
   <!--==================================================================-->
diff --git a/war/xdocs/changes.xml b/war/xdocs/changes.xml
index 4fc55863..80e9a578 100644
--- a/war/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/war/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
   </properties>
   <body>
     <release version="1.6.3-SNAPSHOT" date="in SVN">
+      <action dev="ltheussl" type="fix" issue="MPWAR-45" due-to="Kim Dykeman">war:inplace should check for maven.war.src.</action>
       <action dev="ltheussl" type="fix">
         <description>Java sources are not compiled when used with maven-test-plugin-1.8 and maven.test.skip=true.</description>
         <fixes issue="MPWAR-62"/>