I even tried to put the redirect directly into the http.cong file. Did not work. I tried it with and without the "permanent" setting. I restarted Apache and it did not fly. Everything else worked. But the redirect did not work.
Did you try the URL Translator in the admin/set up tab? You can set up URL aliases from any entered URL to any node in your eZ site. I have only tried it with folders, but I don't think it would be a problem to use html files...
If that does not work, you can add an HTML page that uses some javascript redirect code to get them to the new page.