In essence, the coup plan involved tricking the Reserve Army into the seizure and removal of the civilian government of wartime Germany under the false pretence that the SS had attempted a coup and assassinated Hitler. The conspirators depended on the assumption that the rank-and-file soldiers and junior officers designated to execute Operation Valkyrie would be motivated to do so on the basis of their false belief that the Nazi civilian leadership had behaved with disloyalty and treason against the state, and were therefore required to be removed. The conspirators counted on the soldiers to obey their orders as long as they came from the legitimate channel—namely, the Reserve Army High Command—in the emergency situation following Hitler's putative death.