He covered the arrival of Adolf Hitler in Vienna in March 1938, and the Nazi annexation of Austria, as news reporter, escaping to Tsjekkoslovakia by taxi, with his undeveloped film hidden in the petrol tank.
Escaping the invasion army, Bratland took a famous photo of king Haakon VII and crown prince Olav, hiding in the birch forest in Molde, under a bombing raid by German airplanes.
He escaped Aalesund by sea to Bodø, crossed the border to Sweden on ski, and presented his news photoes from the war in Norway in Stockholm.
His story and the photographs he presented there of bombed Norwegian cities, contradicted the impression created by German media, of a peaceful occupation.
He published several books in Norwegian: Hvem har makt i Norge (1965), Bratteli tenker høyt (1968) and Er vi slik?