A gear unit includes a housing, two shafts arranged parallel with one another and each supporting a helically cut toothed gear, and two pairs of bearings supported by or relative to the housing in an arrangement in which each pair of bearings rotatably supports a shaft with the toothed gears of the two shafts being rotatable one relative to the other in mutual engagement. Two bearings of the two shafts lying to a common side of the inter-engaged helical gears are supported by a substantially common wall section of the gear unit housing, one of the two bearings being arranged to transmit to the housing wall section axial forces acting in a direction from the gears to the bearing and the other bearing being arranged to transmit to the wall section axial forces acting in a direction from the other bearing to the gears.