Why did 3 separate mappers work on the map? Did CTZ quit and then pass it off to others?
I sketched out a heightmap in June 2008, that's pretty much it. Everything you see and will play is Schism's work, have no doubt!
About the orientation: There's a tradition in battlefield amphibious landing maps to have the attackers attacking vertically upwards (bf42 omaha, fh42 gold, fh42 omaha). It was originally intended to be such a map, and only when I read historic accounts (too late!) did I realise that it wasn't.