The units were supposedly in feet, but once the winchman had got the "handle" on what the pilot thought was a foot, he adjusted his call accordingly. "Right two, left six, steady".
The standard unit (as taught at DHFS) (SAR units are much, much larger!!) is 2 m. The terminology of forward 1 and right, means i wish you to move forward 1 unit with a tendency to the right, if I wished you to move right 1 unit with a tendency forwards (or back) then it would be right 1 and forward. The primary axis is determined by using the angle to where you wish to move. If it is 45 degrees or less than straight ahead then it would be forward, more than 45 degrees to 135degrees then left ( or right), 135degrees to the 180 would be back.