[2] Following the establishment of Vichy, Bichelonne was, in September 1940, appointed head of the Office central de repartition des produits industriels, a body that determined how raw materials would be proportioned between the newly established corporatist bodies in charge of each industrial sector.

[3] Along with the likes of Jacques Barnaud, François Lehideux and Pierre Pucheu, Bichelonne was a member of a group of technocrats who held important positions in the early days of the Vichy regime.

[7][8] Bichelonne was one of the cabinet members taken under SS guard from Vichy to Belfort on the night of 17–18 August 1944 as the Nazis desperately sought to maintain the collaborationist government by any means necessary.

[9] Moved to the Sigmaringen enclave, Bichelonne fell ill and was sent to the SS hospital at Hohenlychen.

It was officially recorded that he died of a pulmonary embolism, but unsubstantiated rumours suggested that he may have been assassinated.