thumbs not showing using java/apache/tomcat

Hello,
I am having problems getting my thumbnails to display in the ckfinder popup.
If i click on the image it inserts and displays correctly in ckeditor
it also works in my development env with my IDE and tomcat only.
When i move it to production which using Apache and tomcat , this is where i am running into problems.
It appears that it is this call that is breaking.
<div role="img" style="background-image: url("http://mydomain/ckfinder/core/connector/java/connector.java?command=Thumbnail&type=Images&currentFolder=%2F&langCode=en&hash=e2ee20777eef2227&FileName=stunning_animated_gifs_27.gif");"/>

can someone suggest how to debug this?
Thanks
Randy