Italeri 1/48 Spitfire "Beer Truck" sheet error?

They are printed correctly.  M () FF goes on the port side, and FF () M goes on the starboard side.  That way, you will have the single letter towards the front and the double letters towards the tail, on both sides of the aircraft.

Wouldn't worry too much, it's mostly conjecture. Got the serial number wrong, should be MH978.

www.eduard.com/.../R0008.pdf

Go to page 26, near the end, and there is an explanation there.

Some information about the guy here:

en.valka.cz/.../68902

The confusing thing is that I recently did a Revell kit of a MkII Spitfire that had the lettering NK ( ) K on it for both sides. So if the aforesaid method is correct it would seem that was in error and should have been NK ( ) K an K ( ) NK.  But that kit had it as NK ( ) K in that order on both sides

Not confusing- it's the old "mirror image" thing.  The Revell kit was wrong.

So then the correct way to have done that Revell kit would be:

NK ( ) K  - - other side K ( ) NK ?

This one is actually easy to check out, just go to the Revell website and go to the MkII Spitfire 1:48 and you can view the instructions and check out how they indicate it's done.

We have been here before, not very long ago. The only rule is that the squadron codes and the individual letter must be separated by the roundel. How it was done is mostly down to whim and examples of any combination can be found. The squadron codes can be forward of the roundel on both sides, behind the roundel on both sides or forward on one side and behind on the other. As they say, check your references.

As for P8088, that is easy to answer.